Police beat: A fight over the quality of life in a shipping container

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

Oct. 4: They weren’t the first couple to fight over a messy home — but they were living in a shipping container.

The dispatch call reported a domestic dispute. Two sheriff’s deputies drove to the 33600 block of Mount Tahoma Canyon Road, near the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. They spoke to a 63-year-old man who said his boyfriend, 41, had torn their place apart.

The man said the two had been dating for about six years and moved to the area from Seattle about a month ago. He couldn’t remember what started the latest argument, but he said the boyfriend started throwing things and knocked down a shelf.

They had wrestled a bit and the boyfriend grabbed him, the man said. He had minor lacerations on his cheek and arm.

Broken glass covered the floor at the shipping container’s entrance. It had been converted to a house with drywall. The older man pointed to dents created when the boyfriend threw food jars at the wall. That would cost money to fix, he said, as would the broken glass doors.

The boyfriend admitted arguing about the quality of living at the property. He said the older man started trying to make him leave and tried to push him out the door. The boyfriend resisted and that led to the physical fight, he said. He wouldn’t say much more.

Mulling the stories and the older man’s injuries, deputies decided to arrest the the boyfriend. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

Oct. 1: You can call the cops for help, but if you try to dictate how they help, it rarely ends well.

The dispatch call reported a domestic incident. A woman was standing outside a house, locked out. Reportedly, her boyfriend was standing on the roof and laughing at her.

Two sheriff’s deputies drove to the 14300 block of Purdy Drive Northwest near Wauna. The woman, 36, greeted them and asked what she could do about being locked out.

Deputies knocked on the front door. No one answered. The woman tried to find her cat. The deputies checked the sides of the house and a fenced yard.

The woman said she had several pit bulls that didn’t like strangers. One deputy radioed the other with a warning about the dogs.

A few moments later, one of the deputies started yelling. The other deputy ran to check, with the woman trailing.

Rounding the corner, the deputy saw his colleague negotiating with someone at a fenced gate, apparently the boyfriend. The woman rushed up, shouting at the deputies not to shoot her dogs.

One deputy told her to relax — nothing was going on with the dogs.

The woman wouldn’t listen. She shouted again and pounded the deputy’s chest, grabbing his uniform. She wouldn’t let go, though the deputy kept telling her to stop.

The struggle ended with a wrist twist. Soon, the woman was cuffed and placed in patrol car. At first she yelled at the deputies. She admitted she’d been drinking.

Told she was under arrest, she said she hurt her ankle. Did she need medical attention? No, she said.

At the Pierce County Jail, she apologized to the deputy but got mad at jail staff. She was booked on suspicion of third-degree assault.

Sept. 29: The fight started over an alleged racial slur. Two Tacoma officers drove to an apartment complex in the 200 block of South 80th Street.

They spoke to a woman, 36, who said her son told her that a neighbor had complained about youths at her front door and used a slur to describe them. The woman said she told a friend about it, and the friend told the neighbor.

At that point, the neighbor, a 30-year-old woman, came to the woman’s door and confronted her. An argument started. The woman shut the door in the neighbor’s face.

A little later, the woman spoke to another neighbor about what had happened. The 30-year-old woman, who lived in an adjoining unit, overheard the conversation. She came over, and the argument flared up again.

The first woman admitted she got mad enough to hurl an insult at the neighbor about child custody, saying, “That’s why you lost your kid.”

That was enough to spark a physical fight. The 30-year-old lunged at the woman and punched her three or four times.

Officers spoke to the neighbor. She said she never used a racial slur, and she got angry at being falsely accused. She admitted grabbing the woman, but she didn’t mention punches.

Officers spoke to a witness who described the attack, adding that another neighbor separated the combatants.

Officers arrested the neighbor and booked her into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.

This story was originally published October 7, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Police beat: A fight over the quality of life in a shipping container."