Police Beat: A dog that wouldn’t attack, machete threats, and a gun-toting neighbor

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

Aug. 18: The red-headed man dragged a small dog on a leash and yelled at passing strangers.

He walked into the grocery store in the 600 block of North 1st Street and kept ranting, yanking the dog with him.

Before long, two Tacoma officers headed for the store, responding to a reported assault.

The officers spoke to a 43-year-old witness, who told a story. He said the red-headed guy looked dangerous and appeared to be abusing the dog. The man said he warned store employees, who immediately recognized the the intruder: a semi-regular who had been kicked out of the store in the past.

Store employees confronted the man and told him to leave. The witness stood nearby, watching.

Abruptly, the red-headed man lunged toward the witness. The witness put the man in a headlock to halt the attack.

The redhead tried to throw a punch. Store employees stopped him, and the crowd wrestled him to the floor.

Told to leave, the red-headed man yelled at the witness, then the little dog.

“Attack! Kill!” the man shouted.

The dog didn’t respond.

The man shouted again.

“I have a Latino suspect, he is reaching for a weapon!”

The man walked out with the dog. By the time officers arrived, he was gone.

They knew who they were looking for. They’d kicked the man, 29, out of a nearby restaurant earlier. Multiple businesses and people had called about the man throughout the day, reporting erratic behavior and possible abuse of the dog.

Officers decided to arrest the man based on the multiple incidents, and started searching for him. Soon, they spotted the man walking the dog.

Seeing the patrol car, the man started walking away.

“Stop, come here,” one officer said.

The man started jogging.

“Don’t run,” the officer said, and jogged after him.

The man started sprinting, dragging the dog behind him. Finally, he tossed the leash. The dog skittered off.

The chase went on for half a block. Officers took the man down. He fought and kicked, to no avail.

In the patrol car, he said he’d been bitten by a cobra. He kicked at the doors and spat, shouting, “Rape!”

The man was booked into the Pierce County jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault and resisting arrest. The dog’s whereabouts were unknown.

Aug. 21: Domestic violence doesn’t discriminate. Whether it occurs in fancy houses or homeless encampments, the patterns never change.

The dispatch call reported an armed robbery. Three sheriff’s deputies drove to the 18200 block of Pacific Avenue South in Spanaway.

They spoke to a man who lived in a homeless encampment nearby. The man said he’d been sleeping in his tent with a female friend that morning when they heard the loud rumble of a truck outside.

Stepping outside, the man saw his rival: the woman’s ex-boyfriend, carrying a hatchet. The ex quickly grabbed a machete that sat outside the tent, and started chasing the man around the encampment and threatening to kill him.

The deputies asked why things were so out of hand. The man said the ex-boyfriend couldn’t handle the breakup with the woman. The ex had been hounding them, and recently poured gas around the perimeter of the tent, threatening to kill them both.

Deputies found the ex-boyfriend about 20 blocks away, along with the hatchet and the machete. He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of threats and harassment..

Aug. 21: In theory, it should have been possible for the two neighbors to put out their trash bins without the threat of gunplay.

The dispatch call reported intimidation with a weapon. A sheriff’s deputy drove to the 8300 block of 185th Street Court East on South Hill.

He spoke to a man who said his neighbor had gotten mad after a short argument when the two put out their trash bins. A little later, the neighbor approached the man in his driveway, pulled something black and gray from his waistband and put it behind his back.

The man asked what it was.

“You know what it is,” the neighbor replied.

The man had an idea. The neighbor was known to carry a gun, and he had a history of belligerent behavior.

The deputy knew the neighbor well. The man had a history of hostile behavior toward law enforcement, and he was a suspect in two open investigations involving weapons-related crimes. Deputies had a standing warning not to respond to his house without backup.

The report from the man in the driveway led to a heavy response. Deputies and a SWAT team surrounded the neighbor’s house and spoke to him through a loudspeaker, calling to him by name.

Soon, the man was arrested and booked into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of brandishing a weapon and reckless endangerment.