Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma Police.
March 7: The Tacoma woman hid in her bedroom, afraid to answer the door when officers knocked.
Who could it be? She wasn’t sure. Maybe her ex-boyfriend was back — the father of her three children, the bane of her life.
After three knocks, she answered, opening the door a crack. She saw the officers and cried. She sat at a table, eyes bloodshot and brimming, nose running.
The call came in as a domestic abuse incident, but the information was garbled, disjointed talk in a brief 911 call that ended abruptly. Officers rolled to an address in the 1500 block of South 81st Street.
The woman was 40. Her ex was 42. He was gone, she said. She didn’t know where. Her children stayed with their grandmother in Spanaway, a safer harbor.
The ex had shown up earlier, another unwanted visit. She ran inside and shut the door. He stood in front and yelled that he would kick it in and kill her. Experience told her he meant it. She let him in; resistance was pointless. He always found a way in, by windows or doors. She went to her room and closed the door, furtively calling 911. He followed.
“He wanted to take my pants down to check me,” the woman said, snuffling. “I’ve been terrorized by him.”
The ex always accused her of infidelity, she said. They weren’t together anymore — that didn’t matter. He watched her, followed her. She’d filed a no-contact order against him a few months back — one more in a line dating back to 1996. It made no difference.
At the table, she broke down again, stretched an arm forward and dropped her head in silence. After a few moments, she looked up.
“Sometimes I go into shock and I don’t know what to do,” she said. “He’s vicious. He beats me with bats. He has broken everything in here.”
Today, he’d nuked a pizza in the microwave. He walked into the bedroom and threw it at her. Officers saw the remnants on the bed, scattered around the room.
She thought of a story, something to make him go away. Her parents were coming to visit, she claimed. She had to get dressed and get ready.
That swayed him. He let her go to the bathroom. She grabbed some clothes, and ran outside in her panties. She said her ex followed her, stood on the porch and mocked, telling her to come back inside.
“Look at you out here looking like a ho,” he said.
“I don’t care what you think — I’m not going back inside,” she said. “If you’re going to kill me, then you have to do it out here.”
The man snatched her phone and threw it to the sidewalk, shattering it. The argument grew loud, drawing attention. The man hustled to his car, a black 2004 Ford Focus, and drove away.
Officers checked records and found the woman’s latest no-contact order. The man had an active arrest warrant in the system. They sent a call over the radio, calling for an arrest on sight.
As of Friday evening, officers were still looking for him.
March 7: Grandma was confused, a long way from home.
She was 72. She lived in Federal Way, but she was standing in Tacoma’s Hilltop, at the intersection of South 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Officers asked what she was doing.
Grandma didn’t know addresses or phone numbers. She knew her daughter lived nearby, but she wasn’t sure where. She carried no identification. Questions finally yielded answers. Officers took her to her daughter’s apartment in the 200 block of North Tacoma Avenue.
Her daughter wasn’t home, but her granddaughter, 17, was inside. Grandma suspected something. Her daughter was avoiding her. She had to be hiding in the apartment.
Officers called the daughter at work. She didn’t want to come home. She wanted her mother to take a bus back to Federal Way. Officers weren’t sure about that. They left Grandma at the apartment.
A short while later, they came back. Grandma was outside, smashing the apartment windows with a golf club. Inside, the granddaughter was crying. She said Grandma came in and got mad, saying her daughter had stolen money. She looked for the money and threw things. The granddaughter pushed her outside, but not before Grandma grabbed the golf club.
Officers called the daughter again, insisting that she come home and deal with the situation. They took Grandma to St. Joseph Medical Center, and placed her on a hold for possible involuntary commitment.
March 3: The 27-year-old man ran back and forth, shouting an emphatic verb.
Officers spotted him shortly after 1 a.m., screaming and running in the 2800 block of Sixth Avenue, past the bars and houses. The verb started every sentence. The man aimed it at police, the neighbors, the bars, and the world.
Officers stopped him and asked why he was yelling. The man replied with the verb and his middle finger.
Officers cuffed him and read him his rights. He said he understood.
He said he hated the police and he wanted to prove a point. Officers booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of creating a disturbance.
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.