Police Beat: Stunning arrests, a nixed nap and a long ride home

Editor’s note: Regular Police Beat scribe Sean Robinson is taking a break. Substitute writer Adam Lynn compiled this column from Tacoma police reports and Pierce County Superior Court records.

July 7: An out-of-control daughter and her over-protective mother found themselves on the wrong end of a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy’s stun gun last week.

The action began when the deputy spotted a car speeding along at 72 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Lights and sirens ensued. You know the drill: License, registration, blah, blah, blah.

The driver, a 22-year-old Graham woman, apparently did not.

She pulled over but continued to have an animated conversation on her cellphone as the deputy walked up to her car. She refused to hang up despite repeated commands to do so.

At one point, she closed the driver’s side door and window in an attempt to lock herself in her car.

Alas and alack, the Bungee cord used to secure the door proved no match for the deputy’s belt knife.

The driver still was in no mood to comply.

Deputy prosecutor Doug Hill wrote in a charging document that the woman then “lay on her back in the seat and kicked the officer multiple times in the upper leg and groin area.”

As a male of the species, let me just say, “Ouch.”

About this time, the woman’s 46-year-old mother arrived, also with a cellphone in hand. She did not bring a motherly calm to the proceedings, also ignoring the deputy’s commands.

Outnumbered now, the deputy pulled out his stun gun and used it on the daughter, who was rooting around in her “waistband area,” Hill wrote. Investigators later found a knife in the front pocket of her sweatshirt.

Mom, meantime, “put her hands on the officer and tried to pull the officer’s Taser arm away” from her daughter, records show. The mother, also a Graham resident, got a zap, too.

It was then that the daughter tried to make a break for it, but another jolt from the deputy’s stun gun sent her into a ditch, where she finally was handcuffed.

Mom wasn’t finished, approaching the deputy once more.

But the threat of another zap from the Taser persuaded her to surrender.

Drug paraphernalia was found in the daughter’s car. Warrants for her arrest were found in law enforcement databases.

And mother and daughter soon found themselves on their way to jail.

July 5: Sleep deprivation can make the best of us cranky.

So it was at a local fast-food establishment in the 7200 block of Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.

It was just before 1 a.m. when the manager of said restaurant spotted a 20-year-old man snoozing at a table. She asked him to leave.

He declined.

The manager persisted: “You cannot sleep in my lobby. You need to go.”

The man responded by putting his head back down on the table.

A Tacoma police officer working off-duty security at the restaurant saw what was happening and intervened.

“The manager just asked you to leave. You need to leave,” said the officer, who was in full uniform.

No go.

“I’m waiting for food,” the man replied.

The officer repeated his command, a bit more forcefully.

“I raised my voice and said, ‘LEAVE! NOW!’” the officer wrote in his report.

The man got up to go, but not before slamming a food tray to the floor and stopping to get into the face of the manager, clenching his fists in the process.

Enough, apparently, was enough, and the officer arrested the man and took him off to jail.

No word as to whether he found the sleeping accommodations there to his liking.

July 9: This tale might illustrate why insurance companies charge more to insure male teenage drivers.

It was just after 9:30 a.m., and two Tacoma police officers responding to a call in the 3800 block of South G Street heard a pair of car engines revving nearby.

One officer said to the other, “Somebody’s getting ready to do something stupid.”

Indeed.

Seconds later, a black Chrysler 300 came zooming down the street with a yellow Chevy Camaro not far behind.

The Camaro then whipped alongside the Chrysler, and, as one of the officers later reported, “Both vehicles accelerated further and appeared to be racing.”

The officer continued: “The speed of the vehicles continued to increase until both drivers saw me pointing at them and directing them to pull to the side of the road.”

Gulp.

At the wheel of the Chrysler, a 16-year-old boy. At the wheel of the Camaro, a 17-year-old boy.

They pulled over.

The 17-year-old boy confirmed the first officer’s assessment.

“That was stupid,” the boy said.

The 16-year-old denied racing and didn’t have a license with him.

Both boys now face reckless driving counts.

Both boys also got to face their parents, who were called to the scene.

No doubt those were long, long rides home.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 8:45 PM with the headline "Police Beat: Stunning arrests, a nixed nap and a long ride home."