There was a gunfight, car chase and SWAT standoff. They found him in the attic

A 33-year-old man who ran from Puyallup police after a drive-by shooting was found hiding in an attic following an 8-hour standoff with a SWAT team.

It all started just before 5 a.m. Sunday in the 2500 block of South Meridian Street when several residents of an apartment complex and senior living community called 911 to say they heard gunshots and a couple yelling.

Some witnesses said they saw a vehicle leaving the Hampton apartments about the same time. An officer spotted the vehicle on 27th Avenue and 7th Street Southeast and tried to pull it over, but the driver sped off.

After a three-minute pursuit, the car crashed on Forest Green Boulevard and 23rd Avenue South and two men inside fled on foot.

Police said they found a large amount of drugs and two rifles inside the vehicle.

A K-9 unit was able to find one of the men, who told police he’d just been sleeping in the woods, but the other got away.

Officers learned about 7:30 p.m. that the suspect was hiding in a home in the 2700 block of Briarwood Court North and made contact with him, but the man refused to come out.

Three women and a baby were evacuated from the home and a SWAT team was called to arrest the man.

They found him hiding in a crawlspace of the attic about 3:40 a.m. Monday and took him into custody.

On Monday, Pierce County prosecutors charged the man found hiding in the attic with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The other man was charged with first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Both suspects have prior convictions, records show.

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 7:25 AM with the headline "There was a gunfight, car chase and SWAT standoff. They found him in the attic."