On March 4th, our Peninsula Detachment Deputies took a report of a Domestic Violence Protection Order Violation. The suspect was messaging the victim threatening to kill her. The victim saw the suspect was parked a few miles from her home and was scared he would carry out the threats. Another 911 caller reported the suspect was telling other people he was going to kill his family members and had a large knife on him.
Deputies had probable cause to arrest the suspect and they went to contact him in a parking lot in Key Center.
The deputy saw the suspect pull out a large machete causing him to draw his weapon. Now deputies had an armed suspect refusing to exit his vehicle.
As they tried to convince him to surrender, Deputies realized they had a person in crisis that they were dealing with. Instead of escalating things they requested our Designated Crisis Responders to call the man on the phone.
The DCR’s were unable to get the man to cooperate, but deputies continued to negotiate with him for over an hour.
Without any cooperation from the suspect deputies had to come up with a plan to get him to surrender. They utilized OC or Pepper spray rounds to try to get him to surrender. The pepper spray had no effect, so they broke the window and when the man leaned out they grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. This allowed them to grab his other arm and then work on getting him out of the truck and into handcuffs.
Once the man was detained he was booked into the Pierce County Jail for a Protection Order Violation, Felony Harassment and Resisting Arrest. This definitely could have been a lot worse, but our deputies did a fantastic job using the resources available to them and getting him in custody safely.