Chaotic scene at motel on South Hosmer Street in Tacoma prompts large police response
A request for backup from Tacoma firefighters on Friday prompted a large police response after crews ran into a crowd that made it difficult to leave a motel in the city’s South End.
Tacoma Fire Department responded about 12:05 p.m. to a motel in the 8800 block of South Hosmer Street where a woman reported her boyfriend was unresponsive, according to police spokesperson Wendy Haddow.
While crews were at the motel, Haddow said a crowd she estimated at 25 to 30 people formed. Emergency crews saw at least one person with a gun and requested a “code blue” countywide priority backup call at about 12:50 p.m.
“Everyone was in everyone’s business, and they didn’t feel safe to go through,” Haddow said. “We went to back up fire, and the guy was safely brought to the hospital.”
Law enforcement from multiple agencies, including Tacoma, Lakewood and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department responded. Haddow said that as police arrived, officers called for more backup. She said 39 units responded to the call.
No emergency service personnel were injured during the response, according to fire department spokesperson Joe Meinecke. He did not have further details of exactly what happened at the motel that led crews to request backup.
“It was just in the process of providing patient care that they were being threatened and impeded from completing that and from completing the transport,” Meinecke said. “Those factors and then also some of the crowd members displaying firearms was enough for them to activate that code blue situation because of the imminent threat to themselves and others.”
Police were able to clear a path for an ambulance, which brought the unresponsive man to St. Joseph’s Hospital. The man’s condition was not known.
Haddow said friends and family of the man followed behind the ambulance.
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 2:48 PM.
