A store in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood was robbed at knifepoint – in broad daylight – by a homeless man identified Monday as one of Seattle's most prolific offenders, police said.
Repeat felon Jeremiah Crouch was charged Thursday with robbing the Queen Anne 7-Eleven at knifepoint on Feb. 18, court documents show.
Police said Crouch was angry after he couldn't buy cigarettes with food stamps and returned with the knife. Investigators said he stole cigarettes and food – on video surveillance.
Crouch was found at Third Avenue and Pike Street, and told an arresting officer he was only selling cigarettes, according to the police report. The officer who arrested Crouch saw the video surveillance, and he also was identified by the 7-Eleven clerk who was robbed.
Police said they found 32 sealed packs of cigarettes: 26 Newports and six American Spirits.
According to court documents, the 39-year-old felon committed a theft only 10 days earlier, but was not in jail. Court documents list more than two dozen theft convictions since 2001 among a long list of other convictions.
Crouch has been booked 71 times since the year 2000 and had at least 130 warrants for failing to appear.
On Monday, Seattle business owners highlighted failures of the criminal justice system in Seattle, showing how repeat offenders cycle through “with little accountability and no apparent impact on their behavior.”
The report highlights several points, including how prolific offenders with severe mental health conditions pose a serious threat to public safety, how they often fail to comply with court-ordered conditions, and how case filing delays hamper Seattle’s retail theft program.
In May 2017, KIRO-TV highlighted how long case filing delays in Seattle's City Attorney's Office allowed suspects to commit other crimes. When charges were eventually filed, assistants working for Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes often gave no explanation for the delays. Holmes declined to talk to KIRO for the story.
Previously, KIRO reported in 2018 on how then-Senior Presiding Seattle Municipal Judge Kimi Kondo said the City Attorney's Office had a "complete disregard for public safety" in a plea deal it offered a suspect accused of threatening an African American man. Follow this link to read that judge's concerns with the City Attorney's Office.
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