Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.
Oct. 30, 12:55 a.m.: Superwoman’s powers couldn’t save her from a mugging.
The 31-year-old had just left a Halloween party in Tacoma and was headed home to Lacey, still in costume. She walked west on South Sixth Avenue and turned onto South J Street, aiming for her truck, parked nearby.
She noticed someone behind her – a middle-aged man, about 20 feet away.
Scared, she walked faster. So did the man. She heard him running, coming closer.
The man punched her in the head. She fell and scraped her knee. The man hit her in the face several times. He grabbed her purse and ran back toward Sixth Avenue. The purse held two credit cards, $10 in cash and the keys to the truck.
A witness driving by saw the incident, called police and stopped to help. When officers arrived, the woman refused medical aid. She and the witness described the attacker as a middle-aged black man wearing a black hat, a gray hoodie and dark jeans.
Police tracked the mugger with a dog. The dog couldn’t catch the scent. The mugger left his hat behind. Police kept it. They later found the purse in Pierce County, outside the city. They didn’t find the thief.
Oct. 30, 12:28 a.m.: A scuffle between Occupy Tacoma protesters and a Tacoma occupant started with an argument over hygiene.
The protesters were camped in Tacoma’s Pugnetti Park, near South 21st Street and Pacific Avenue. A 47-year-old man, described in police reports as a transient, wandered into the encampment. Witnesses said he looked drunk.
The man relieved himself against a tree. The occupiers protested and told him to leave. The man pulled a 3-inch folding knife, waved it around and said he wasn’t going anywhere.
“The male started to gesture with the knife, stating that he could not be told what to do,” the report states. Police arrived and found a protester holding the man down, surrounded by a little crowd.
“That’s the guy with the knife,” protesters shouted. “That’s the guy.”
An officer frisked the man, found a knife in his pocket, cuffed him and put him in a patrol car.
The man said he didn’t do anything wrong. He said the protesters were rude. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of intimidation and threats with a weapon.
Oct. 28, 7:08 a.m.: He thought he was helping a friend in a fix; instead he got cracked in the head with a wrench and watched the friend steal his truck.
The 61-year-old Tacoma man got a morning call from an acquaintance, a young woman. He knew her first name and little more. He pegged her as a drug dealer. She was a friend of a former neighbor.
The young woman said she was stuck with a flat tire and needed help. The man drove his truck, a 1994 Ford R-10, to the 1300 block of Bel Air Road, near the Highland Golf Course. The woman was waiting by her purple Honda. She said the flat was in front.
The man walked to the front and saw nothing wrong. Two thoughts flashed through his head. The first was a curse. The second: get away. He turned and saw two figures in Halloween masks heading toward him.
The man tried to run. One of the masked figures hit him in the back of the head with a wrench. The man started swinging his fists, warding off the blows. The masked attacker threw the wrench at the man, jumped into the truck and peeled away. Mask No. 2 clambered into the Honda with the young woman, who hit the gas. Within seconds, both vehicles were gone.
Officers arrived and listened to the man’s story. They found the wrench in the road, wrapped in black electrical tape. An emergency medical team gave him an ice pack for his head; he refused to go to the hospital. He didn’t know the two attackers. He described them as white men in their 20s, both about 6 feet tall, both weighing about 150 pounds. The woman was white, 4 feet 10, about 100 pounds.
An officer asked the man why he would associate with a drug dealer.
“I’m a stupid ass,” the man said.
“He further related that he has no family around now and that he ‘buys his friends,’” the police report states.
That afternoon, the man called police again. He said he’d just gotten a phone call. The caller said the truck would be returned in exchange for $200 – otherwise it would be chopped up and sold for parts.
Police didn’t find the attackers, but Washington State Patrol troopers found the man’s truck not long after the incident, abandoned.
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.