Armed felon taken down by deputies after grade-school fight evolved into a family feud

A family feud spawned by an elementary school fight resulted in two adults scuffling with deputies on the floor of a University Place 7-Eleven on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies wrestled a 23-year-old man to the ground at the convenience store on the 5500 block of Orchard Street West after receiving reports that the man was threatening a woman with a gun. The man was a convicted felon with prior convictions for the illegal possession of a firearm and residential robbery. A 23-year-old woman who tried to stop the deputies was also arrested.

According to the account posted on Facebook by the sheriff’s department, two women approached two deputies assigned to the University Place Police Department as they were investigating a wreck. Told a man was threatening a woman at the 7-Eleven with a gun, they approached the suspected and ordered him to place his hands behind his back. Instead, the man tried to flee.

When his hands moved toward his waistband, a deputy grabbed his arm and the other deputy helped tackle the suspect. As the man struggled with the deputies, a loaded Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver fell to the floor. One of the deputies tossed it aside.

Once the man was in cuffs, the deputies attempted to arrest a woman who lunged at them several times during the struggle with the man. She, too, resisted arrest and, according to the report, “thrashed around the floor and yelled that she didn’t do anything.”

The tussles lasted about two minutes. Afterward, the post states, the woman said she attempted to intervene because “she didn’t think she had to cooperate if she didn’t do anything.” The man’s explanation for resisting: He thought deputies “couldn’t just run up on him” and he thought they needed to read him his rights before placing him in handcuffs.

After questioning the suspect and the witnesses, deputies determined the children of the witnesses and the children of the suspects were involved in a fight six months earlier in Tacoma. The adults had been fighting ever since.

One of the witnesses reportedly told deputies she knew she was in trouble when she crossed paths with the man. She said she tried to stay in the back of the store and told the clerk that the man had a gun.

The gun recovered by the deputies had the serial numbers scratched off.

The male was booked into Pierce County Jail for unlawful possession of a firearm, third-degree assault, obstructing a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. The woman was booked for obstructing a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Armed felon taken down by deputies after grade-school fight evolved into a family feud."