Police beat: A tale of four drunken drivers

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.

This is a tale of four DUI arrests. The beginnings were different. The endings were the same.

Nov. 20: The first arrest came at 1:54 a.m. The driver was 31, behind the wheel of a red 2002 Ford F150. He ran a red light at South 56th Street and South Yakima Avenue.

Two officers spotted the man and pulled him over. The man was remorseful. He didn’t know where his wallet was. Officers found it in his back pocket.

His breath was soggy. He screwed up the field sobriety test, and messed up the breath test after that. The test requires two exhalations into a portable device. The man blew tiny breaths, too soft for samples. Officers listed his performance as a “refusal,” and booked him into the Pierce County Jail.

Nov. 21: The second arrest came at 3:33 a.m.. The driver was 31, behind the wheel of a gray 2011 Chevrolet Impala. He turned onto South Fawcett Street from South 64th Street, not bothering to signal. He pulled into a driveway, stepped out, walked unsteadily toward the front door of a house and fumbled with his keys.

An officer watched and circled the block. Returning moments later, he saw the man walk back toward the car, start it up and back out of the driveway. The officer pulled the car over.

At the same moment, a witness stepped out of the house and yelled at the officer to get that guy; he’d just tried to break in.

The driver told the officer he wasn’t trying to break in, just gain time so the officer would leave. Inside the Impala was an open can of Bud Light and a half-full bottle of Absolut vodka. The driver said his license had been suspended 12 days earlier, and he was coming from a party.

The officer cuffed the man, took him to police headquarters and ran a breath test. The man blew samples of 0.20 and 0.20, more than three times the legal driving limit of 0.08. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail.

Tuesday: The third arrest came at 6:08 a.m. The driver was 32, behind the wheel of a black Lexus, blocking traffic on South 74th Street, just west of South Tacoma Way. She sat in the driver’s seat as an officer approached in a patrol car and stared at her.

The driver’s window was down in a steady rain. She didn’t notice the officer. Abruptly, she gunned the engine. The car lurched forward. The officer flicked on his car’s emergency lights lights. The driver swerved left and right, turned onto another street and stopped.

The officer told her to stop right there; the woman said she wouldn’t run. Her mouth was open and her eyes were blank. She coughed repeatedly and fumbled for her license, then forgot what she was doing.

She admitted she’d been drinking. Her fingers were blackened. Fragments of pills and grimy tinfoil sat in the car’s console.

At police headquarters, she admitted drinking, smoking marijuana and smoking pills. During the breath test, she inhaled instead of exhaling. The officer tagged her with a refusal, and booked her into the Pierce County Jail.

Thursday: The fourth arrest came at 7:34 p.m. The driver was 20, behind the wheel of a red 2002 Ford Taurus.

It wasn’t obvious he was driving at first; the car had flipped, and was sitting on its roof in the middle of the intersection of East 65th and East M Streets.

Officers responding to the incident found three men. One, 22, was helping the other, 20, to stand. The third man, 22, was standing nearby. A crumpled can of Coors beer lurked in the debris.

Two witnesses flagged an officer down, pointed to the three men and described the incident: The car had rushed toward a roundabout at the intersection, tried to swerve around it, nicked the curb and flipped.

The witnesses pegged the 20-year-old as the driver. They said they helped him crawl out of the car, and that he seemed to be drunk because they had to keep yelling at him to stay awake.

Emergency medical technicians from the Tacoma Fire Department had arrived. They were trying to help one of the 22-year-old men, who had a bloody face.

The man was resisting profanely, telling the medics not to touch him. One officer walked over and told the man it looked like his nose was broken, and the medics were trying to help.

“My nose is fine,” the man replied. “Look.”

He punched himself in the face twice. The officer heard a cracking sound. The man’s nose looked worse. He flailed at the medics and yelled. Officers tried to hold him down. He fought and cursed. They cuffed him, and helped the medics put the man in an ambulance.

Officers returned to the other two men and spoke to the 20-year-old man witnesses had tagged as the driver. They asked his name and age. He gave it.

Where was he sitting in the car?

“I don’t remember.”

How much had he had to drink?

“Nothing.”

The man spoke softly. He couldn’t keep his eyes open.

Officers spoke to the other man. He said he was the passenger and the 20-year-old was the driver.

The 20-year-old had no identification. Using a mobile phone, the officer looked for a local Facebook profile and found it. The profile photo matched the man’s face.

The officer followed ambulances to the hospital, where the men were treated. Afterward, he spoke to the man who had fought with the medics and told him he would be arrested for resisting arrest and obstructing an investigation.

The officer spoke to the 20-year-old once more. Did he remember who was driving the car?

“No.”

The officer explained. Multiple witnesses said the man was the driver.

“Really. So I was driving?”

The officer said one of the other passengers was hurt. The other, luckily, was OK. Had the man been drinking before the car flipped?

“A little bit, I guess.”

What was he drinking?

“Coors.”

How many?

“Just one.”

After treatment, the officer cuffed the 20-year-old and took him to headquarters. Three hours had passed since the car flipped. The 20-year-old took a breath test, and blew samples of 0.15 and 0.14.

The officer booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of being a minor operating a vehicle after consuming alcohol.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 5:05 AM with the headline "Police beat: A tale of four drunken drivers."