Ballard High Student Charged in Greenwood Murder

Bryon White, a senior at Ballard High school, was arrested and charged with the murder of David Peterson, 54,  who was killed in the Greenwood area on Feb. 23rd.  White is to be charged as an adult for the killing.  

White was apparently homeless.  

Apparently right before Peterson's robbery and subsequent murder, three suspects had taken money from a nearby restaurant and had tried to rob another individual.  It is unclear if they were involved with the Peterson robbery/murder.  No other suspects have been found or arrested. 

From the Stranger Slog:

A conversation I caught between an 18-year-old black Ballard High School student and his mother...

The Mother: "How the hell can a kid get a gun, when he doesn't even have a home?"
The son: "A gun is easy to get. A home is very hard to get."



Comments

Anonymous said…
Sad all around. Just curious, why did you feel you needed to identify that student you quoted as black?
-Pass I-595
3/3/14, 12:50 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Pass, if you read the thread, that part was from the Stranger Slog and the author who wrote that is black himself. I did not identify the student in any way except that he went to Ballard and was reported (elsewhere) to be homeless.
3/3/14, 12:58 PM
Anonymous said…
My apologies. I missed that. Seems an odd reporting strategy, regardless of the color of the writer.
-Pass I-595
3/3/14, 2:35 PM
Unknown said…
I think this discussion of the use of race description is interesting. I can see where it might be appropriate if the suspect were at large, or if there was some thought that this was a hate-related crime, but I don't understand what the attributed significance is if the suspect has already been apprehended. (And I understand that this originated on the Slog.0
3/3/14, 8:08 PM
Christina said…
The boy threw his homelife away, like he more recently threw his life away. Byron White has a mother, Yvette Watkins, who has a Seattle address. I will not post her address, but it is readily available to anyone who uses a Washington state voter database lookup application. She is not a single mom, either. Byron White had, until recently, been living in a two-parent household. I know these things because I have read the King 5 news story in which Ms. Watkins was interviewed.
3/3/14, 8:18 PM
Anonymous said…
A KING 5 reporter spoke to Byron White's mother.
"Byron was not homeless. He came from a two parent background. He was a good student and a respectful student," Yvette Watkins said. "We gave him all that he needed."
"During the last four to five months he took a turn for the worse. He started missing classes and I was worried about it," she added. "I tried to steer him in the right direction."
"A piece of my heart has been snatched out of my chest."
- Full picture
3/3/14, 8:24 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Just heartbreaking for all.

All SPS can confirm is that he was a student at Ballard.
3/3/14, 8:45 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Just heartbreaking for all.

All SPS can confirm is that he was a student at Ballard.
3/3/14, 8:45 PM
Christina said…
Everything starting from "From the Stranger SLOG" down can be excised as inaccurate. I hope not to read here anything cross-posted from The Stranger's SLOG unless it has more veracity than overheard snippets of conversation, AND pertains to:
a) Seattle School Board;
b) Seattle Public Schools issues, crises, scandals, lawsuits;
c) community education activism and organized resistance to education reform;
d) outstanding achievement recognitions awarded to SPS teachers, admins, volunteers and students.

3/3/14, 8:45 PM
Anonymous said…
The Stranger report was written by an African-American whose whole M.O. is speaking truth to power, as he sees it, about race and poverty/wealth. The author is known for being incendiary. And the Slog is a blog. Of course Charles mentioned the alleged perpetrator is black. It's what he does.

Knowing your news source and its biases is critical Internet information gathering 101.

-skeptical-
3/3/14, 9:32 PM
Jet City mom said…
When the suspects were at large race was mentioned, but in most articles Ive read after the arrest, it hasn't been mentioned.

Pretty scary to read about assaults targeting people just walking in their neighborhood.

It sounds like he wasn't really a runaway, but a teen who wanted more freedom than he had under his parents roof.
Not unusual, but most of us didn't think of financing that lifestyle by robbing people.
How did he get funds to buy airfare to Atlanta?
3/3/14, 9:35 PM
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