He shot at his crack-addled dad and didn’t know it, deputies say

A crack-smoking burglar got a more than he bargained for when he broke into his son’s University Place home on New Year’s Eve, according to Pierce County sheriff’s deputies.

Warning shots from the homeowner.

The spooked would-be burglar sped off from the scene, was chased by a responding police officer and ended up crashing through his garage door, deputies say.

The suspect, a 55-year-old University Place man, was arraigned Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court on two malicious mischief charges and one no-contact order violation. Bail was set at $100,000.

According to prosecutors and sheriff’s deputies:

The man used a weightlifting bar to break a sliding glass door of the house in the 6300 block of 35th Street West about 12:40 a.m. Dec. 31.

The crash woke the residents up. The husband, rifle in hand, went downstairs to confront the intruder. The wife grabbed their shotgun. Their child called 911.

The husband saw the intruder with the weightlifting bar in his hand and thought it might be a gun, so he moved toward him and began firing.

A Fircrest police officer responding to the break-in call saw a white sedan leaving the area at speeds upward of 80 mph. The officer pursued the car, following it through a red light to a home in the 2100 block of Bridgeport Way West.

The car, piloted by the burglar, drove straight into the garage door, then backed up and drove into it again. The driver then ran into the house.

Deputies arrived to find the man’s girlfriend outside the house, saying her boyfriend was acting crazy and talking about people trying to kill his family.

The man, ordered to come outside, came out covered in sweat and acting paranoid. He told deputies he’d smoked “five to 10 rocks” of crack.

He said he was hearing voices telling him his family wasn’t safe, so he went to his son’s house to protect his son and grandkids.

The husband said he didn’t realize it was his father he’d shot at, but said he’d gotten odd phone calls from his father, leading him to believe his dad was on drugs again.

Deputies found a crack pipe on the deck where the man had been arrested, and found five bullet holes in his rented car.

This story was originally published January 4, 2018 at 5:35 PM with the headline "He shot at his crack-addled dad and didn’t know it, deputies say."