Police Beat: Battles over soccer, boat docking and a pointed laser
SEAN ROBINSON
Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma Police.
July 7: It was a case of bike versus car. The car won, but the driver landed in jail.
The Tacoma police officer, riding routine patrol on South McKinley Avenue, noticed a red car whipping by. The driver was upset, yelling and talking to himself. The officer noted the license number and kept moving.
He drove on and reached the 9300 block. He saw two young men in the road, waving and screaming. One, a 25-year-old Tacoma man, had blood on his face and arms. The front wheel of his bicycle looked like a pretzel.
The man said a red car had run him over. He’d been riding along when the driver of the red car started yelling at him. Then the driver spat on him.
The cyclist said he rolled to the driver’s window and told the man to get out of the car. Instead, the man swerved sideways, knocking the cyclist down and rolling over the front wheel.
The officer noticed scattered debris in the road, including a car mirror. He sent out a dispatch call: hit-and-run. He checked the license plate of the red car he’d seen earlier and traced it to a nearby apartment complex. The red car, a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire, was sitting in the parking lot, minus a mirror.
The officer knocked on an apartment door and recognized the driver he’d seen earlier – a 36-year-old Tacoma man. The officer took the man outside, on the porch, and asked for his side of the story. The man said he didn’t know what the officer was talking about.
The officer said he’d seen the man drive by earlier. The man professed ignorance. The officer asked the man which car he’d been driving. The man pointed to a white car in the lot.
The officer spoke to two other people in the apartment. One was the Tacoma man’s brother. The other was a young woman. Both said the man had borrowed the young woman’s red car – the Sunfire – within the past hour.
The officer spoke to the Tacoma man again and asked why he was lying. The man stopped answering questions. The officer cuffed him and booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of assault.
July 10: The boaters were feuding.
Not far from the Point Defiance ferry terminal, they jostled for a spot.
A Tacoma man, 40, edged his vessel into the path of another vessel, helmed by a 53-year-old man. The police report suggests they’d argued in the past.
The 53-year-old told the 40-year-old to move his boat. The 40-year-old flung his line and hook toward the older man, but missed. The older man steered away.
A third man, familiar with the two, stepped out of a boathouse and yelled at the 53-year-old. He offered to fight.
The older man docked his boat and called police. He told an officer he would get an anti-harassment order against the other boater.
The witness in the boathouse said he was tired of the fighting. He told the officer the older man was always picking fights with the younger man. The officer filed a report but made no arrests.
July 10: One man said he was taking pictures of a lightning storm. The other thought he was being spied on and retorted with a threat and a laser.
An officer responded to the dispute in the 1000 block of South 62nd Street. It was the third call of the night, and matters were escalating.
The man taking pictures was 45. He said his 29-year-old neighbor had threatened to shoot him, saying, “I’m going to smoke you.”
The younger man was pointing a laser, the 45-year-old said. He shined it at the older man’s chest and head.
The running battle started with pictures. The older man said he’d been taking shots of the weather, and the younger man got mad, coming at him with clenched fists. The older man had pushed the younger man away, knocking him down.
The officer arrested the younger man, who wouldn’t answer questions, apart from cursing. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of harassment, threats and unlawful discharge of a laser.
July 12: The scuffle on the soccer field spilled onto the sidelines, and the ref couldn’t stop it.
A Tacoma officer responding to a reported assault arrived at a sports complex in the 2600 block of South 80th Street. The combatants: a 28-year-old Tacoma man and a 42-year-old Tacoma man. Both were playing in a loose match, and getting on each other’s nerves.
The referee intervened and tried to cool the men off. Within minutes, both left the field for substitutions – but the younger man was still hot.
Witnesses said the younger man confronted the older man on the sidelines and punched him in the face. The older man walked away. The referee ejected both players.
The officer, sorting out the scuffle, talked to the younger man, who said the older man punched him first. The officer saw no visible signs of injury on the younger man, but the older man had a swollen mouth. The officer booked the younger man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.
sean.robinson@thenewstribune.com
253-597-8486
