Suspect, 17, arrested in slaying of Ballard convenience store clerk

Seattle police SWAT team officers have arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the fatal shooting of a Ballard convenience store clerk on Sunday, police said.

Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said information was developed during the course of the investigation that was passed on to SWAT team officers, who arrested the suspect around 3 p.m. today in a home in the 900 block of Northwest 60th Street, not far from the convenience store. Jamieson said police are "pretty confident" the suspect was the man being sought for the slaying of clerk Manish Melwani.

Two other men were also taken into custody for questioning, Jamieson said during a briefing near the home where the suspect was arrested.

Jamieson had no comment on whether a weapon was found on the suspect.

Melwani, 28, of Lynnwood, a clerk at the Pit Stop Express and 76 gas station on Northwest 15th Avenue in Ballard, was shot in the thigh and abdomen during the 6:30 a.m. robbery and later died at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, leaving his family devastated.

"How does this kind of thing happen?" Melwani's older sister, Pooja Herkishnai, asked this morning. "He didn't deserve this."

Melwani was originally from Surat, India. The owner of the store told KING-TV that Melwani was hoping to start a family.

The home where the suspect was arrested is a white Tudor-style house on a quiet and tidy street in Ballard. Both that house and two adjoining houses were cordoned off by police tape, although residents of the other houses were able to come and go.

At 7 o'clock tonight, there were six police vehicles outside the home. One officer took a dog inside the house.

Also behind the police tape was an older, rusting Cadillac. Neighbors said they had seen the car towed away early this morning.

Neighbor Emmy Jordan said the house has been in the same family for several generations. Lately, she said, "it's been weird around there, with lots of strange teenaged kids coming and going and no adults around."

She did not know whether the suspect was among the young people she had seen at the home.

Police had described the gunman as a thin male, 5-feet-10 and in his 20s — but were unsure of the man's race because he wore a hat, bandanna, sunglasses and gloves during the robbery, which was caught on the store's security camera.

Bobby Sangar, owner of the gas station, said police were investigating a bag found near the scene that the gunman may have dropped before he fled the area on foot.

Meanwhile, Seattle police are hoping to talk with a couple that may have witnessed the moments just before or after the slaying. Police detectives say a white man and a white woman entered the store around the time the crime was in progress then quickly fled.

They hope the couple will contact them.

According to police, a passer-by called 911 around 6:30 a.m. Sunday after seeing someone with a bandanna covering his face inside the store. When police arrived at the business, near the intersection of 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 58th Street, they found the wounded clerk, said police spokesman Jeff Kappel.

Video from the store shows the gunman wore a dark-colored beanie cap with the snowboard-designer name "Burton" printed in gold, sunglasses and the dark-colored bandanna, which had stars on it. He walked behind the counter and fired.

Kappel asks that the couple or anyone else with information call 911.

Phillip Lucas: 206-515-5632 or plucas@seattletimes.com

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com