Suspect arrested after officer-involved shooting and car attack in Bonney Lake
A suspect was arrested Monday in a Dec. 15 officer-involved shooting that was followed by a police officer being struck by a car driven by a fleeing suspect in Bonney Lake, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
The 24-year-old suspect was identified by detectives from witness interviews. He was found early Monday morning in a vehicle in a hotel parking lot on East 27th Street in Tacoma.
The Dec. 15 incident began when a Bonney Lake police officer approached a man in a 1997 Honda Civic in a grocery store parking lot in the 20900 block of state Route 410. The Honda had been reported stolen in Tacoma the previous night.
“As an officer approached the vehicle, he radioed that shots were fired and the stolen car fled the scene,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. A witness reported that the driver hit the officer with the stolen vehicle.
The Bonney Lake police officer has not yet given a statement regarding who shot at whom, according to the Sheriff’s Department. However, the suspect was booked on an assault charge related to the vehicle strike. He faces no shooting charges at this time.
On Dec. 15, law enforcement officers from Puyallup, Sumner and the Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene to help search for the suspect, but they were unsuccessful.
About 15 minutes after the shooting, a woman near Buckley called authorities to report that she had seen a man abandon a car in her driveway and walk away. Investigators confirmed that it was the stolen vehicle and brought out K-9 dogs to search, but the suspect was not found then either.
Eventually, the tracking dogs led officers to the 24100 block of Entwhistle Road East, where a box van had just been stolen.
On Saturday, the box van was found abandoned outside a Tacoma business.
On Monday, the suspect was booked into the Pierce County Jail. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, the Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
