He shot his ex outside her Frederickson home then ran, charges say. Now he’s in jail

A man accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend outside her Frederickson home over a custody dispute was in court Wednesday.

Superior Court records say 39-year-old Tony French was arrested Tuesday night following a police chase.

“We were able to get him into custody without anybody getting hurt,” Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

French fled after the shooting Sept. 7, investigators said, leaving his ex in critical condition. She’s since been released from the hospital.

All told, he pleaded not guilty at arraignment Wednesday to first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of unlawful gun possession, five counts of violating a no-contact order, first-degree burglary, possession of a stolen gun, possession of a stolen vehicle, trying to elude police and vehicle theft.

Court Commissioner Meagan Foley set bail at $2 million for the shooting case and $250,000 each for charges related to the chase and vehicle theft.

Deputy prosecutor Brad Hashimoto told Foley that French was responsible for a “saga of escalating conduct” that culminated in the shooting.

Charging papers give this account:

The woman has a restraining order against French, which he violated in April by showing up at her work and outside her home in the 16000 block of 69th Avenue Court East.

They argued when he demanded to see their 14-month-old child. When she went into the house, she found various electronics destroyed and a credit card and family photos missing.

Then French allegedly broke into the home July 14 and hit the ex’s new boyfriend in the head with a baseball bat.

On Sept. 6, French had an acquaintance tell his ex that French wouldn’t kill her if she gave custody of their children to her sister.

It was the next morning that he allegedly showed up and shot the woman three times as she was smoking a cigarette with the new boyfriend outside the home. She ran, and he fired several more shots at her.

French then fled.

He was caught Tuesday when deputies attempted to stop a vehicle that had been reported stolen.

The driver sped away, crashed into a mailbox near South 82nd and South Alaska streets, then ran into nearby bushes.

A police dog found him, and investigators found a loaded, stolen gun on the ground near him, court records show. He was identified as French.

A passenger in the vehicle told deputies French was a stranger who had offered him a ride.

He said he asked French why he didn’t stop for deputies and that French replied, “I can’t do this tonight.”

French allegedly made a number of statements to arresting deputies, including:

▪ “You guys know who I am, you guys know what I did. All that stuff with my ex-girlfriend was for my kids.”

▪ “You’ll wake up tomorrow and hear on the news you got Tony French.”

▪ That he’s normally very careful and should have “known better than to pull in front of the police while driving a stolen vehicle.”

In a separate incident, French is accused of inviting a woman and her children on a beach outing, then taking her keys and driving off with her vehicle when she went to take a shower.

Court records don’t say whether that’s the vehicle he was driving Tuesday.

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 4:44 PM.