Police Beat: A pushy grandma, an ex-lover’s revenge, and magical meth

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Oct. 14: Grandma didn’t like the Halloween decorations in the house, but she took her objections a little too far.

The dispatch call reported a domestic assault. Two sheriff’s deputies drove to the 5500 block of 81st Street East and met with the caller, a 29-year-old woman.

She stood next to a green pickup truck. Her son, 3, sat inside.

Deputies noticed a small cut on the woman’s nose. She was also wiping blood from scrapes on her right hand.

The woman said she’d been arguing with her grandmother about Halloween decorations. The argument spilled outside as the woman prepared to take her son shopping.

Grandma demanded the keys to the truck, which she owned, though the woman used it regularly. The woman said she was trying to load her son into the car seat when Grandma pushed the boy, knocking him down, and punched the woman, smashing her glasses against her nose.

Deputies spoke to the boy and asked if he was OK. The boy was quiet.

“Grandma pushed me down,” he said.

The woman refused to fill out a domestic violence form. She said she didn’t want Grandma to be arrested, but her actions were unacceptable.

Deputies spoke to Grandma, 79. She admitted arguing with the woman and demanding the keys. She denied knocking the boy down. She said she didn’t hit the woman.

One deputy said the woman had a wound on her nose. Grandma changed her story a little. She said she smacked the woman’s glasses off, but had forgotten that.

Deputies cuffed Grandma and told her she was under arrest. She was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

Oct. 17: The idea was post-breakup revenge, and a message to a former best friend.

The dispatch call reported possible shots fired. Tacoma officers drove to the 1200 block of South Ferry Street. They found a blue Kia Sorrento with a shattered window on the passenger side and a bullet hole in the door.

Witnesses said a white Jeep had driven by earlier and stopped near the parked Kia. A loud bang followed, and the Jeep drove away. Witnesses saw two people inside, one wearing a yellow hoodie.

Witnesses said the Jeep belonged to a woman who knew the owner of the Kia. The two women had been friends, linked by a boyfriend who had recently broken up with the Jeep’s owner and started going out with the Kia’s owner. The previous relationship had been “turbulent and violent,” a witness said.

Officers soon found the Jeep elsewhere in the city. Two people were inside: a woman, 20, and a man 21, wearing a yellow hoodie. Officers found no weapons in the car.

The woman said she didn’t know anything about the damaged Kia. She soon changed her story, and said she and the man had driven past the Kia. She admitted saying she wished someone would “mess up” the car, since her best friend had started sleeping with her ex-boyfriend.

She said she didn’t mess with guns. She said she couldn’t say who fired a shot. She said officers didn’t even have the gun.

“It was just a window,” she said.

The man denied any knowledge of the incident. He said the woman had complained about a beef she had with another woman and a man, but he didn’t know anything else.

Officers booked the woman and the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of malicious mischief.

Oct. 13: The man didn’t want sheriff’s deputies to use his name, but he had information.

Deputies found him in remote South Prairie, at the intersection of 133rd Street East and Cedarview Drive East.

The man knew where to find someone deputies might be looking for. He pointed to a house nearby. Deputies knew it belonged to a man with a long record of criminal convictions, wanted by the state Department of Corrections for escaping from community custody.

“He’s sleeping on the couch,” the man told deputies, and left the area.

Deputies approached the house carefully. The state warrant included a warning that the man might have weapons.

They knocked on the door and announced themselves. No answer. They called a commander, who approved a forced entry if necessary.

They knocked again. No answer. They forced the door open and called the man’s name.

The man, 44, was sleeping on the couch. Deputies woke him and cuffed him. They spotted a mirror on the living room floor, scattered with fragments of methamphetamine and a baggie that looked like it held a gram or more.

The man, now awake, said he knew about his warrant.

What was it for?

“Failure to report,” he said.

What about the drugs on the floor?

The man said he didn’t know how they got there.

How often did he smoke meth?

“Once a day,” the man said.

Where did he get this batch?

“I don’t know,” the man said. “Sometimes it magically appears.”

Deputies booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on the state warrant.

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 3:20 PM.