Police beat: Failed freerunning, a ‘sherm’ and the hide-under-the-pier trick

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

June 27: Freerunning makes for flashy stunts in a James Bond movie, but it’s not the smartest tactic for eluding cops.

The dispatch call came in at 12:45 a.m., reporting a suspicious person wearing shorts and a blue and white flannel shirt, carrying a backpack and circling the neighborhood on a bicycle.

An officer drove to the 4800 block of Sixth Avenue, looked around, saw no one and kept watching. Before long, the cyclist appeared. He matched the description. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

The officer flicked on his lights: a signal to the cyclist, who didn’t stop. Instead, he bolted, pedaling across Sixth and sliding onto North Huson Street.

A second officer joined the chase. The cyclist ditched the bike and started running between houses. The first officer ran toward the man, who flitted out of sight.

Moments later, the officer spotted the man on the roof of a house. The officer shouted at the man to come down and talk. Instead, the man sprinted along the rooftop and jumped to an adjoining roof.

Again, the officer shouted at the man to stop and surrender. The man kept running, descending from the roof to the side. The officer ordered the man to stop or take a stun-gun shot.

The man didn’t stop. The officer pulled a stun gun and fired. The man dropped. The second officer caught up, cuffed the man and stood him up in the yard of the house.

The man, 22, identified himself. He said he understood his rights.

Why did he run?

The man said all his encounters with police ended badly.

The officer said the man could have stopped, talked and walked away with a warning. The man said he ran because he was scared.

The man asked for his girlfriend, who supposedly lived in one of the houses he had climbed. The man said he wasn’t allowed in the house.

An initial records check on the man came back clean for prior arrest warrants. A resident of the house the man had climbed was angry and wanted to press charges. An officer booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of trespassing and obstructing police. A second records check revealed an active arrest warrant, which was added to the booking list.

June 26: According to street slang, a “sherm” is a joint or a small cigar dipped in liquid PCP.

It wasn’t clear whether a sherm addled the man driving the red 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood, but something messed him up, and it wasn’t liquor.

Several officers responded to a reported disturbance near the intersection of South 40th and South J streets. Callers described a man standing in the street, yelling at children. One child was crying and saying something was wrong with her dad.

Dispatchers said the trunk of the Cadillac was held down with bungee cords, and the car was blocking the intersection. Officers soon arrived and found the car, along with a group of people pointing at it and yelling, “Stop him!”

One officer rolled toward the car and turned on his emergency lights. The car lumbered forward, starting a slow-motion chase that ended after six blocks, when the car stopped.

Over a loudspeaker, the officer ordered the driver to turn off the engine. The driver looked out of his window, but did nothing. Two officers walked toward the car.

The driver, 39, had both hands on the steering wheel. An officer told him to put the car in park and turn off the engine. The man didn’t respond. The officer gave the order again.

OK, the man said, and did nothing. After a third order, he shifted the car into park. It took two more orders before he turned off the engine and gave the officers a blank stare.

Ordered to step out of the car, the man did slowly. He nearly fell. Officers caught him.

They suspected alcohol, but couldn’t smell any. Along with an emergency medical team, they took the man to an area hospital and told him he was under arrest for drunken driving.

At the hospital, waiting for test results, the man waved to the officer and asked what he was being charged with. Reminded, the man said he smoked a sherm. He asked about his family and his daughter.

The officer said the family and the child were fine.

“I was just getting pizza for the kids,” the man said. “I saw a dude I knew outside hitting a blunt. I hit it. It tasted funny and I felt weird.”

The man was medically cleared and booked into the Pierce County Jail.

June 26: The old hide-under-the-pier trick didn’t fool Kramer the police dog.

The trouble started with a report of an attempted armed robbery in the 1700 block of Dock Street, at a bar along the Foss Waterway. Reportedly, a man with a silver handgun tried to take the admission receipts from a summer mixer.

Multiple officers responded to the scene. One interviewed a witness who said a dreadlocked young man had tried to take the money and had thrown a punch that missed. Another witness said the man had a gun in his waistband.

The witnesses said security officers had taken the man away and were waiting for police in another area.

Another officer found the security team: three bouncers standing outside the bar with a man who appeared to match the description.

The officer asked what happened at the bar. The bouncers said they didn’t know what the officer was talking about.

“Are you sure?” the officer asked, adding that reports said the man standing next to them had been carrying a gun.

“Him?” a bouncer said. “No, he’s just about to leave.”

The officer began to suspect the bouncers were lying. He stepped toward the man, who spouted a curse and started walking away, almost running. The officer told him to stop. The man started running toward a nearby pier and slipped out of sight.

A third officer, in charge of a K-9 officer named Kramer, took up the chase. The dog headed for the pier. Seeing no one, the officer shouted into the air that a police dog was coming.

Kramer padded along the pier. At the end, he poked his nose toward the water and whined. The officer looked below, and saw the man, nearly submerged, next to a boat.

Officers pulled the man, 23, out of the water. They couldn’t find a gun, and the victim of the alleged robbery attempt was nowhere to be found.

They booked the man into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of trespassing and obstructing police. The man smelled of liquor and scoffed profanely on the way to booking.

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Police beat: Failed freerunning, a ‘sherm’ and the hide-under-the-pier trick."