Tacoma woman drove into group of people outside smoke shop after altercation, charges say
A Tacoma woman has been charged with assault in Pierce County for driving into a group of people Wednesday after an altercation outside a smoke shop.
Prosecutors charged the 49-year-old woman with two counts of first-degree assault for the incident that injured two people outside the War Pony XPress on Portland Avenue, charging documents show.
She is in custody at the Pierce County Jail, records show. A plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf during an arraignment Thursday afternoon. Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Barbara McInvaille ordered the woman held on a $100,000 bail.
Puyallup Tribal officers were dispatched at 12:02 p.m. to the War Pony XPress for a hit and run. A woman was lying on the ground near the store with injuries to her lower legs. She was reportedly crying from the pain and going into shock, according to charging documents.
Documents show the woman’s boyfriend was at the scene and told officers there was an argument between him and a woman, identified as the 49-year-old woman. His girlfriend was with him during the argument.
Just prior to the incident, the man went inside the store while his girlfriend remained outside. The 49-year-old woman went to a drive-thru to buy cigarettes, drove back around in her red sedan and parked in front of the man’s vehicle, prosecutors wrote. An argument began between the woman and the girlfriend. The woman then entered the store to argue with him and they were both asked to go outside. The woman was also asked to leave.
According to the report, witnesses said the suspect was acting erratically and refused to leave the property. It was reported that the suspect was “getting in people’s faces” and yelling profanities at them and making threats, prosecutors wrote.
The girlfriend told the woman her baby was in the car. Witnesses said the woman allegedly “made an open threat to harm the baby too.”
The woman got into her car after several people told her to leave, documents show. She then allegedly “purposefully drove her vehicle into the group of people asking her to leave.” The girlfriend fell to the ground after she was struck, and the woman allegedly drove over the lower half of her body. The extent of the girlfriend’s injuries are not known, prosecutors wrote.
The man told police that “there was no way that the driver did not know that she hit [the victim].” The man tried to chase the woman as she drove off.
A maintenance worker also was injured after his left knee was struck by the sedan, prosecutors wrote. There was reportedly “redness in the knee area.” The worker also told authorities the woman purposefully drove the car in their direction.
Video footage from the scene reportedly showed that the woman approaching the group “time and again to instigate an altercation,” prosecutors wrote. No one assaulted the woman, according to surveillance.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
