Pair fire shots at Pierce deputies, lead 30-mile high-speed chase, officials say

Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrested two people who shot at them while leading them on a 30-mile high-speed chase Wednesday evening, a department spokesman said.

The chase wound through the Tacoma Tideflats, into Parkland, through Spanaway, onto Mountain Highway East and ended at 360th Street South about 6:30 p.m., sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The pair pointed guns out of the vehicle’s windows and fired at pursuing deputies, Troyer said. Tacoma police, Lakewood police and the Washington State Patrol assisted in the chase.

The suspects were shocked with Tasers before being detained, Troyer said.

Ashley deChoudens of Tacoma was headed home from the Sprague Avenue ramp on state Route 16 to southbound Interstate 5 when she saw a pair of State Patrol vehicles go by at what she estimated was 80 mph.

Then she saw Ruston police officers driving on the grass to try and get onto southbound I-5.

“It just reminded me of an episode of ‘Dukes of Hazzard,’” deChoudens said. “Like, ‘What are those Duke boys up to?’

“I’ve definitely never seen them do that before.”

Jordan Kane of Tacoma was driving east on state Route 512 when he saw a pair police cars driving by him, so he turned on the police scanner app on his phone.

“I’m listening to it, and all of a sudden, I look to my right and I see four or five cops turning right, and then the (Mazda) RX-8 turned right and took off” down Steele Street, Kane said. The right-turn lane was empty at the time, which he said was the only thing that kept the chase from ending there.

Kane was curious about what was going to happen and followed for a bit.

“Then I heard, ‘Shots fired.’ I thought, ‘I’m going to hang back and let them do their jobs,’” Kane said. “I wanted to see the aftermath. I kept hearing, ‘Spike strips deployed.’ It was definitely like a movie scene, that’s for sure.”

After that, he kept seeing law enforcement officers from around Pierce County driving past him as he went south.

“I felt like I was in a video game,” Kane said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 6:49 PM.