Local

Tacoma police officers help wrangle 10 horses that escaped in city’s neighborhood

Tacoma Police Department officers helped wrangle 10 escaped horses Wednesday morning in the city's South End. Police said the commotion caused some traffic backups on McKinley Avenue.
Tacoma Police Department officers helped wrangle 10 escaped horses Wednesday morning in the city's South End. Police said the commotion caused some traffic backups on McKinley Avenue. Tacoma Police Department

Tacoma police officers helped catch some runaways Wednesday morning in the city’s South End. Standard handcuffs couldn’t have been much help with these escapees, as police were wrangling 10 horses that ran off from a property.

Police were called about 8:11 a.m. to East McKinley Avenue for a report of horses on the loose in the 7600 block and possibly as far south as 86th Street, according to Tacoma Police Department. Officers found horses trotting along the roadway and at least one behind someone’s residence.

Some of the horses ran between cars, causing traffic backups for about half an hour while officers and the animals’ owners worked to get them under control. Police spokesperson Wendy Haddow said officers helped herd the horses in the right direction while the owners lured them home with buckets of grain.

“They got in touch with their inner cowboy,” Haddow said.

The horses had escaped a property near 7800 McKinley Avenue after someone cut the lock to the animal’s gate, Haddow said. Officers don’t know who cut them loose.

A photo shared by police on Twitter showed a horse moving down the road with an officer pursuing on foot.

This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 9:34 AM.

Peter Talbot
The News Tribune
Peter Talbot is a criminal justice reporter for The News Tribune. He started with the newspaper in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at NPR in Washington, D.C. He also interned for the Oregonian and the Tampa Bay Times. Support my work with a digital subscription
Get unlimited digital access
#ReadLocal

Try 1 month for $1

CLAIM OFFER