Credit union goes to court to keep felon from getting floor plans, security footage of Lakewood branch

Floor plans. Security camera footage.

These are not things the Washington State Employees Credit Union wants a convicted felon to have.

But a man who held his wife and others hostage at the credit union’s Lakewood branch in 2012 has made a public records request for the information.

That prompted the bank to go to court to try to keep what it deems confidential information out of his hands.

WSECU got a temporary restraining order Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court to keep the records from being released as a preliminary step to seeking a permanent injunction to keep them confidential.

Arnold Flores, 51, is the man asking for them.

He landed in prison after he cut his wife with a box cutter and held her and others in the building hostage with what later was determined to be a BB gun.

Lakewood police ultimately shot him.

Flores told investigators he had wanted to die, and wanted police to shoot him, according to charging papers.

A jury found him guilty of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and six counts of unlawful imprisonment in 2013. He’s serving a sentence of 17 years, seven months at Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen.

Earlier this year, he filed his public records request with the City of Lakewood, regarding the shooting. He specifically asked for documents police got from the credit union, such as surveillance footage and floor plans of the building.

WSECU had handed over those records to Lakewood police as they investigated the shooting.

The Police Department told WSECU about Flores’s records request, informing the credit union that it would hand over the records unless the city got a court order by April 15 preventing it from doing so.

That led WSECU to file for the temporary restraining order that was granted Wednesday. It did not appear a date had been set yet for a hearing about the request for a permanent injunction.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Credit union goes to court to keep felon from getting floor plans, security footage of Lakewood branch."