Police Beat: An illegal urge, a bus shouter and a parking-lot scuffle

Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police.

Sept. 23: The man had thinning white hair, a goatee, a gut and an urge.

Officers found him after responding to a report of indecent exposure. The call came from a woman at a bus stop in the 9500 block of South Steele Street.

The woman was 32. She said she’d been waiting for the bus when the man drove by in an older white BMW convertible. The man pointed at her and then toward a nearby parking lot. He circled the lot three times before stopping.

The woman and another woman at the stop looked at each other, then back at the man. The first woman walked over to the BMW. She held up her phone and snapped pictures of the car, the man and the license plate.

As she got closer to the car, she saw the man was exposing himself. At the same time, he was holding his own phone and taking pictures of the woman. The man drove away quickly.

“Ugh, oh my God — I cannot believe I am talking about this,” the woman told the officer who spoke to her.

Officers soon found the car and the man nearby. He was 59, from Gig Harbor. He gave his name and identification and said he was just talking on the phone when the woman came toward him.

“She just walked over to me and started taking pictures of me,” he said.

The man said he wouldn’t answer any questions without a lawyer. The officer told him he was under arrest. The man said he stashed $200 in his car for emergency purposes, and he needed to use it for bail. Could the officer get the money out of the car?

The officer found two $100 bills under the rear floor mat of the car, gave them to the man, arrested him and booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of indecent exposure.

Sept. 23: The dispatch call reported a disturbance on a Pierce Transit bus. An officer working off-duty security drove to the 3800 block of South M Street to sort it out.

The moment the officer arrived, a 53-year-old man approached him, holding up a phone and shouting that the officer was a racist.

“I literally had not even addressed him yet before he made that accusation,” the officer’s report states.

The officer tried to talk to the transit supervisor who reported the incident. The man with the phone interrupted, talking over the other two.

The supervisor said the man had raised a ruckus on the bus, been asked to leave and refused.

The officer asked the man for his identification. The man wouldn’t give it. The officer asked again. The man refused again. He said everything the supervisor said was a lie.

Ultimately, the man handed over an identification card, but he kept yelling. He said the officer deserved to die, that Osama bin Laden would kill him, and that he supported killing cops because all of them were racists.

The man was jumpy and sweaty. The officer couldn’t tell if he was high or mentally ill. He told the man he was going to be banned from Pierce Transit buses.

The man said he didn’t care. He would get back on the buses if he felt like it.

The officer told the man he was under arrest and cuffed him. It was a struggle. The officer told the man he was adding a citation for obstructing a police officer.

On the way to the Pierce County Jail, the man said he belonged to a group that created public disturbances in order to film police responses. The officer booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of unlawful bus conduct and obstructing a police officer.

Sept. 21: Were they on the run? Just parking for a place to sleep?

The young couple wouldn’t say; that led to their arrest, and separation from their two children.

The car, a gold 2014 Volkswagen Jetta, was parked in a private lot east of Tacoma police headquarters on South 38th Street. Sheets covered the doors and the windshield.

An officer noticed the car and its location, and stopped to check. A 21-year-old woman sat inside, along with a 1-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl.

As the officer spoke to the woman, a man ran up to the car. He was 23. He said his family was inside.

The officer asked the man what the family was doing here.

“Does it matter?” the man replied.

The officer said it did matter. The parking lot was marked as private. Two young children were in the car. A welfare check was appropriate.

The man interrupted, saying the officer didn’t need to be talking to him. The woman got out of the car and joined in. Both of them told the officer to leave.

The officer asked the couple for identification. The man and the woman refused to give it and continued to talk over him. The officer called for backup.

The woman started pulling the sheets from the windows and said the family was leaving. The officer said they didn’t have permission to go yet.

The man and the woman asked why they had to identify themselves, and kept up the debate. A second officer arrived.

The man walked around the back of the Jetta with his hand in a pocket. The officer ordered him to take his hand out. The man stood silently and didn’t. One officer grabbed his arm. The man tried to pull away. Both officers took hold of him.

The woman ran up to the officers from behind, and shouted to the man, “Just run!” She tried to wrestle the man away from the officers.

All four people were tussling as a third officer arrived, followed by more patrol cars. The man and the woman were placed in separate cars.

One officer asked the man if the couple had family members nearby who could take charge of the two children. The man didn’t answer.

The officer said if the man didn’t talk, the children would be taken into protective custody by state child protective services.

“Leave me alone,” the man said.

Officers booked the man and the woman into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. They bought food for the children and turned them over to CPS.

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Police Beat: An illegal urge, a bus shouter and a parking-lot scuffle."