He swung an ax at pregnant woman having labor pains, charges say. Then he was beaten up
A man allegedly threatened a pregnant woman with an ax as she was having labor pains, attacked her boyfriend with a chain and then was beaten up by a group in downtown Tacoma.
The 24-year-old man pleaded not guilty at arraignment Tuesday to second-degree assault, and bail was set at $75,000.
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
Police got a report Monday about a fight on Market Street and arrived to find a large group running away. They spoke with a man who ducked into a nearby restaurant. He told them he’d been hit in the head with a chain and pointed out his attacker.
Then the man’s girlfriend approached. She told the officers she’d yelled because she was having labor pains in her car. The suspect had come up to her, she said, and yelled for her to shut up. They argued and he left.
Then he returned with an ax.
“She said that the defendant approached her and raised the axe like he was going to strike her, but her boyfriend stepped in and shoved the defendant away,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said. “The victim reported that after awhile the defendant returned again with the axe, and this time he swung the axe at her.”
She moved to avoid being hit, which is when other residents of a nearby shelter intervened and started fighting with the suspect.
Two witnesses told police they’d seen the suspect swing an ax at the woman.
When officers spoke with the suspect he said he lives at a camp nearby and that he told the woman to “shut the (expletive) up” after he heard lots of yelling. He said he went back to his camp after the woman’s boyfriend took a swing at him, and that a group then showed up and threw rocks at his tent. One had a cleaver, he said, and he confronted them with an ax.
They left but later came back and threw more stones.
“The defendant reported that he tried to leave, but said that they followed him and beat him up,” the probable cause statement said. “He confirmed he had a chain that he was using to defend himself.”
Investigators found the chain. They didn’t find the ax.
