Police beat: Unfinished work, a $4 fight and new levels of screw-up

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

Jan. 13: The wood and lattice border at the beer garden wasn’t finished, and the tavern owner wasn’t happy.

A tavern regular had offered to refurbish the border. The owner paid him $1,300 and got nothing. The owner told the regular his services weren’t needed; he would finish the work himself.

The regular took offense. He grabbed unused wood for the border and threw it around. He hurled bags of cement into the parking lot. He demanded the rest of the payment he claimed he was owed. Before he stomped out of the parking lot, he threatened to shoot the owner.

After leaving the parking lot, the regular called and vowed to kidnap the owner’s wife, assault her and kill her. The owner called police.

Officers drove to 6100 block of Sixth Avenue in Tacoma, and talked to the owner, who said the threat felt genuine. They ran a records check on the regular, a 56-year-old man.

The check revealed a history. The regular had a penchant for threats, dating back to 1992. Some involved threats to shoot. Another was a threat to kill, and another was a threat to commit a sexual assault.

What was more, the regular had an active arrest warrant. Officers drove to his address and cuffed him.

The man wanted to know the amount of his bail. The officer said it was $1,000. The man admitted arguing with the tavern owner, but he denied making any threats. The officer mentioned the man’s history. The man said nothing. The officer booked him into the Fife City Jail on the arrest warrant.

Jan. 9: It took five officers to sort out a fight over $4.

The dispatch call started with a reported assault. One Tacoma officer and two Puyallup Tribal Police officers rolled to an address in the 1400 block of East 32nd Street.

The emergency call came from a 35-year-old woman who was waiting outside a boarded-up house. She said tribal officers had already corralled the suspect and a friend; both were in a patrol car.

The suspect was a 49-year-old man. The friend was a 47-year-old woman. The Tacoma officer spoke to her and unraveled a long story. The friend said she and the man and the other woman had been at the casino early that morning.

The man had told both women to come back to the empty house for a beer, a cigarette and maybe some meth. The man claimed he had $4 — enough for a pack of cheap cigarettes, if he could find it.

The man rooted around in his pockets, but couldn’t find his money. He forced his way into the empty house; the women followed. He accused them of stealing his money. They denied it, and everyone started looking for it.

The women said they found four dollar bills on the porch and showed the man, who accused them of stealing his money and splitting it.

The women denied it and tried to leave, they said.

At that point, the man punched the younger woman in the face, the older woman said. He chased the women into the street with a piece of wood and told them to empty their pockets. The younger woman got away. The older one didn’t.

Still holding the stick, the man ordered the older woman back to the house, to “finish their business.” Apparently, that involved the man stripping naked, and the woman taking off everything but a sweatshirt, and both parties smoking a bowl.

Officers checked the empty house. No one was supposed to be there, according to county records. The bathtub had been used as a toilet.

The man admitted that he didn’t live in the house. He said a friend had been letting him in.

The man admitted chasing the women with the stick. He admitted taking a swing at one of them but said he missed. He admitted getting naked with one of them, but said it was consensual. The officer booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault, and breaking and entering.

Jan. 9: The Tacoma man discovered hidden levels on the screw-up meter.

His driver’s license was suspended. He’d just graduated from a 30-day alcohol treatment program. He was supposed to have an ignition interlock device on his car, but he didn’t.

At 12:51 a.m., guzzling from a 24-ounce can of Steel Reserve, after downing a couple of shots of Hennessy cognac, the man drove a 2006 Kia Spectra along South 84th Street while talking to his girlfriend on the phone, blew through a stop sign and slammed into the side of a police patrol car.

Multiple units responded. The officer was OK. His car was another story.

The Kia’s front end was crumpled. The driver’s airbag had deployed, and the driver was still sitting in the front seat, still wearing his seat belt.

The man was 30. He apologized for crashing into the patrol car. He mentioned his recent rehab stint and said this was, “God’s way of talking to me.”

Officers booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of drunken driving.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 9:28 AM with the headline "Police beat: Unfinished work, a $4 fight and new levels of screw-up."