Police beat: Hiding from cancer, a suspended license and a punch in the face
Editor’s note: Compiled from reports to Tacoma police and the Pierce County Sheriff’s office.
May 17: The transient broke in to escape the cancer. The cancer was outside, in the air, everywhere.
Two deputies, responding to a reported commercial burglary, drove to a convenience store in the 1100 block of 112th Street South. They spotted the owner outside, waiting for them. He said someone was inside.
The glass door had a hole in it, punched with a rock. The door was blocked with a trash can. With help from the owner, the deputies unlocked it and saw the transient come out of the bathroom.
The man, 34, wore nothing but underwear and carried a jar of spaghetti sauce. The deputies told him to come out; he ducked back into the bathroom.
The deputies followed him in. The man sat on the toilet and poured the spaghetti sauce over his head. He yelled that if he came out, he would get cancer.
A deputy ordered him to the ground and cuffed him. On the way out, the man said he couldn’t go outside; the air was bad. The air carried the cancer. That was why he came into the store, he said. He needed an antioxidant to slow the spread.
Stowed in the patrol car, the man asked the deputy to roll up the windows and close the door, to keep the air out.
The second deputy called for medical aid. When firefighters arrived, the man refused to leave the car and be examined.
The deputies decided the man didn’t break in to rob the store. He needed mental health treatment. Deputies filled out the paperwork for an involuntary commitment. The man was taken by ambulance to St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood for an evaluation.
May 16: The man behind the wheel didn’t have permission to drive the car; plus his license was suspended.
The mother spotted the problem the moment she flagged down the car and saw her daughter in the passenger seat. She opened the driver’s door, pulled out the keys, and smacked the man in the face.
The man, 27, stepped out of the car, yelled at the mother and called 911.
Officers drove to the 1300 block of Yakima Avenue in response to the call. The mother, 47, admitted hitting the man. She knew his license was suspended, she said; she thought her daughter would be driving.
The daughter, 19, told the same story to officers. The man was her boyfriend. Her mother allowed him to stay at the house sometimes because he was homeless. She said she only let the man drive because it was raining, and she had a hard time driving in the rain.
Two more passengers, a 21-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man, told the same story of the mother’s actions.
Officers weighed the circumstances. The mother had allowed the boyfriend to stay at her house, temporarily turning him into a resident of sorts. She admitted hitting the man. Three witnesses backed up the story.
Officers arrested the mother and booked her into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault — domestic violence. A records check on the boyfriend revealed an arrest warrant from the state Department of Corrections. Tacoma officers handed the man over to state corrections officers.
May 14: Perhaps cutting through private property was a bad idea; but punching the man who complained was worse.
The dispatch call reported a simple assault. Officers drove to the 5400 block of McKinley Avenue and found a 36-year-old man with a cut under his eye.
The man said he’d been working in the yard when a stranger walked into it.
The man asked the stranger what he thought he was doing. The stranger replied that he was just walking through. The man told the stranger to leave. The stranger punched him in the face.
A quick fracas followed, the man said. The stranger left.
As officers listened, the man spotted the stranger a block away and pointed at him.
Officers rounded up the stranger, cuffed him and searched him. The man, 31, carried no weapons.
Did he know why he was being arrested?
“It was probably because I just punched that guy,” the man said.
Why did he punch him?
The man said he’d been disrespected. He said nothing more. Officers booked him into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor assault.
Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486, @seanrobinsonTNT
This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Police beat: Hiding from cancer, a suspended license and a punch in the face."