by Concerned Burien Resident,
As a Burien resident, I wanted to report something that happened on the night of 7/19, around 7:15, while I was driving last with my daughter. We saw a menacing man emerge from the homeless encampment on 152nd, who had a large pipe in his hand and a very large knife (or sword on a hilt of some sort). He was aggressively walking nearly in the middle of the street and following cars, heading east from the Grocery Outlet encampment towards the direction of the Burien Driving Academy.
When I called the police and reported this to them, they immediately transferred me to the “non-emergency” line, where I waited nearly 9 minutes on the line, and no one picked up, so I hung up. Apparently, unless someone is being physically assaulted, it’s not considered an “emergency.” But the guy had a huge pipe and was chasing cars!
The recording on the non-emergency wait line was recruiting more 911 emergency workers. It seemed to communicate, “Hey criminals, come to Burien because we are too understaffed to enforce the law!”
