I was at the QFC around noon, parked in the very front. When I was getting back into my car I noticed the [person in the] car next to me doing IV drugs.
I tried to take a video of it and it didn’t really come out well because of the glare of the windows. This guy was in the passenger seat just doing some drugs, with his little white bag of drugs, needles and small bottle of water. I literally saw it all and he didn’t care who walked by him. He just continued to do his thing and tweak out a bit in the process.
Needless to say I was a little put off by this so I called 911, which I don’t [normally] do. While talking with 911 the driver, a younger black heavy-set female came out and the [two individuals] started to leave.
[The] 911 [dispatcher] asked me if I could see where they were going. I noticed a Kirkland police car sitting in the parking lot, so I told that to [the dispatcher]. Now to me it seemed that this car takes off pretty fast while the police car is pulling out super slowly. They pull very quickly into the AT&T/Papa Murphy’s stores.
[The dispatcher] is still asking me about where they went, so I went up [to the scene] and the KPD [officer] is only talking to the driver and the passenger is not around. [The police officer] asks me to wait by his car and I tell him what I saw and I showed him the video. I watched as the KPD is asking her for, what I would guess would be, license plates because the car doesn’t have any, and the temporary permit is not very visible at all.
[The police officer] walks away to find the passenger that ran off (there’s two police officers with two cars), but both walk away towards Starbucks when to me its very clear this guy is hiding in the AT&T store.
As the KPD officers are far enough away she starts hiding things in the car while calling the passenger on her cell phone. The passenger is lurking out of the store and she flags him to jump into the car and now they start to back out. During this time one of the two KPD cars in blocking part of the parking lot making it a one way. I basically stood in front of this car so they cannot leave and wave over to the KPD officers.
The driver bumps into the KPD car and then sees the KPD and pulls back into the parking spot. So I walk away and watch from the sidelines again. Now another KPD officer comes up and stands by me. I ask him what is going on? Why have the KPD officers almost let this car go twice now and he tells me its not that easy, they cannot just search their car or do much.
After about ten more minutes the police let these people drive off. So I asked the [officer] “Why did they get to go? You didn’t find anything?” I was told that they did find a used meth pipe, needles and other drug stuff, along with the passenger admitting to using heroin a few hours ago. Plus, the passenger had warrants out for his arrest, but the computers didn’t work, so they couldn’t verify the warrants. King County drops charges for small amounts of meth and heroin possession. The licenses didn’t seem to be a big deal either, because she just got them.
To me it seemed like the KPD officers believed whatever they where told and didn’t really care. I said that the guy probably hid his drugs in the store he was hiding in and maybe [they should] check there? They walked in and out in two seconds and said the store didn’t have any bathrooms? By this point I was just done and I guess this is how the KPD handles things.
Nick Vichas, Kirkland
