Police beat: Cinnamon whisky, post-Gaga traffic and a machete

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

Aug. 8: The man favored Fireball whisky, but he wanted to set his own price.

He staggered into the drug store in the 22000 block of Meridian East in Graham, grabbed a $23 bottle, threw a $5 bill into a planter and walked out into traffic.

The store manager called 911. Two sheriff’s deputies rolled to the store, and spotted the man, 27, in the woods near a neighboring grocery store. Witnesses pointed him out.

The deputies closed and cuffed the man, telling him he was under arrest.

“If you take me to jail, I will kill you,” the man said.

One deputy called the booking sergeant at the Pierce County Jail, who said the man couldn’t come in until he wore off his bender. The man was dropped off at Tacoma General Hospital for treatment, and subsequently booked on suspicion of shoplifting.

Aug. 6: It takes some doing to provoke a cop directing traffic to break off for an arrest, but the Tacoma man managed it.

The officer was working off duty near the Tacoma Dome, waving clusters of cars leaving the Lady Gaga concert. As he worked, a man, 39, stood at the corner of the intersection and shouted profane names.

The officer turned away, continuing to direct traffic.

The man wouldn’t relent. He said he wanted to box the officer and “kick my ass,” the report states.

The officer told the man to move on, and turned back to the cars.

The man stepped off the curb and kept shouting, with greater emphasis.

The officer told the man to get back on the curb. The man repeated his threats, and stepped forward.

The officer waved a flashlight at the man, pointing the direction he wanted him to go -- step back to the curb.

The man moved into the midst of the traffic and slapped at the flashlight. The officer drew a stun gun and told the man to step back.

The man didn’t. The officer fired the stun gun. The man fell and said he was done.

The officer cuffed the man and told him he was under arrest. He asked why the man confronted him. The man said he wanted to beat the officer.

“Why?”

“Because.”

The officer didn’t know the man, and had never seen him before. He called for backup and medical aid. The man declined aid, and emergency medical technicians said he was OK. Another officer arrived and tried to book the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of obstructing an officer. The jail refused to take him for mental health reasons. The man was given a citation and released.

Aug. 5: Improving the grip on your machete might be a reasonable task, but the parking lot of a shopping center next to a Tacoma Rainiers game might not be the best location.

The dispatch call reported a man “waving a machete around.” Three officers drove to the 4500 block of South 19th Street near Cheney Stadium, where a game had just ended.

Reportedly, the man had been driving a silver 1998 Honda Civic. Officers soon spotted it driving through the parking lot, and flagged it down.

The driver, 27, stepped out and started running. The foot chase ended near some bushes. The man was trying to hide. An officer told him to come out, show his hands and get on the ground. After a short struggle, he was cuffed.

One officer asked the man why he ran. He said he had a warrant, and he was trying to get back to the woods where he lived.

Why had he waved the machete around?

The man said he didn’t wave it, but admitted pointing it toward the sky while he wrapped rope around the handle to improve the grip.

Why did he have the machete at all?

“Protection,” the man said.

Officers found the machete in the car. They found the arrest warrant after a records check. They booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on the warrant, obstructing officers and unlawful display of a weapon.

This story was originally published August 12, 2017 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Police beat: Cinnamon whisky, post-Gaga traffic and a machete."