Grandma’s 5-minute fight helps end 34-hour Pierce County manhunt, records say
.jpeg "Skyler Cantrell.")
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Skyler Cantrell fled an officer-involved shooting on May 3 and was caught May 4, 2026.
- Cantrell damaged an unoccupied resident's vehicle, left blood stains and a bloody knife.
- A five-minute struggle drew officers' attention and led to his surrender.
Police had been looking for him for over 24 hours. Then, he chose the wrong house to break into — one with a grandmother who was willing to fight.
Court documents contain new details about the hunt for Skyler Cantrell, a 23-year-old man who fled from an officer-involved shooting on May 3. The News Tribune previously reported on the hunt for Cantrell, who broke into a number of residences before police arrested him on May 4.
Cantrell had a gunshot wounds on his left shoulder, his left forearm and a finger on his left hand from the attempted arrest the day before. He spent a number of days in the hospital before being booked into jail Thursday.
Cantrell is being held at Pierce County Corrections on two counts of first-degree burglary, first-degree criminal trespassing and duty upon striking an unattended vehicle, to court records. Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf during a Friday arraignment. His bail is set at $300,000.
The attempted arrest
It all started at 2:02 a.m. on May 3. A deputy with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office found Cantrell slumped over in the driver’s seat near the 900 block of 72nd Street East and 9th Avenue Court East, according to court documents.
Cantrell was already on law enforcement’s radar, the documents say. He previously was released from prison after serving time for second-degree assault and was wanted for a police pursuit on April 16, “which resulted in a collision and his successful escape from arrest.”
On May 3, deputies deflated Cantrell’s front tire, the documents say, then surrounded his car with police cars. After Cantrell woke up to the deputies saying he was under arrest, he fled by crashing his car into the patrol vehicles.
A deputy fired several shots from his handgun, the documents say, and the bullets went through Cantrell’s front windshield, driver’s door, driver’s side window and the driver’s side passenger window.
“Cantrell drove over a large bush and struck the front end of an unoccupied vehicle belonging to an uninvolved resident causing significant damage as he fled the scene,” court documents say.
Two break-ins and a bloody knife
Cantrell drove one mile from the scene, court documents say, before abandoning the car at a residence in the 800 block of East 85th Street.
Just up the road in the 500 block of East 86th Street, a homeowner received a shock when Cantrell opened an unlocked door and walked into their house, according to court documents. Cantrell got into a confrontation with the homeowner and “was eventually convinced to leave,” but not before he grabbed a knife from the resident’s kitchen.
Cantrell abandoned the knife in the road, the documents say, then tried to break into a second residence in the 8400 block of East E Street by jumping the fence. He walked into the house, only to get into an encounter with two German shepherds.
He fled before police arrived, documents say.
The only thing the police found? Blood stains in both houses, and a bloody knife lying in the street.
‘She was terrified for their safety’
Police finally caught Cantrell at 12:30 p.m. on May 4, 2026, court documents say – and it’s all thanks to a grandmother’s instinct to save her grandchildren.
Deputies found Cantrell in the 900 block of 75th Ave Court East in Tacoma, documents say, and he fled by walking into a nearby residence through an unlocked sliding glass door. Inside the house was the grandmother and her “two toddler-aged grandchildren.”
Cantrell grabbed one of the children by the arm, the documents said, which caused the grandmother to get into a “physical altercation with him.” The grandmother was “grasping and pushing Cantrell away from the children,” and Cantrell fought back by pushing her in return.
When Cantrell tried to walk down the hallway and towards the bedrooms, the grandmother “pushed and pulled him” back into the living room, documents said.
“Eventually, the grandmother began frantically yelling for help and began pounding on a window in an effort to gain the officers’ attention who were outside [actively] seeking Cantrell’s whereabouts,” the documents say.
Cantrell pulled the grandmother away from the window, documents said, but “eventually exited the residence, surrendered, and was taken into custody.”
The fight lasted about five minutes, the documents say, and the grandmother and children were not injured.
“The grandmother later told a detective she was terrified for their safety,” the documents said.
