Man arrested after police chase and nude escape

Published 5:54 am Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A man who escaped Harborview Medical Center naked after being treated for injuries sustained during a Hollywood-style police chase and crash in Shoreline, was arrested July 20 at a convenience store on Capitol Hill, said Shoreline Police Chief Denise Pentony.

“Our fraud unit had a tip that the suspect might be in the Capitol Hill area, and the anti-crime unit took him down at a mini-mart there at about 9 p.m. Sunday night and he was booked into King County Jail,” Pentony said.

Joseph M. Tremato, 33, was under police watch at about 8:30 a.m. on July 18 at Harborview when he escaped in a hospital gown– which came off as he ran.

He ran nude down Jefferson and 10th, broke into a boarding house, stole some clothes and disappeared, police said.

Seattle Police, the canine unit and the King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter unit were called to the scene, Pentony said.

Tremato was being treated for injuries he sustained after a police chase on July 16.

The chase started after Tremato and a 15-year-old female companion entered the drive-up lane at the Bank of America at N. 205th St. and Aurora Avenue N. in Shoreline at about 4:45 p.m. and presented a stolen check with a forged signature on it to the teller, said Kevin Fagerstrom, spokesman for the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The bank called police and when Shoreline police officers arrived, they attempted to block the suspect’s vehicle, which turned out to be stolen, at the drive-up line and got out of their cars to approach the man.

“As the deputies approached the vehicle, the driver accelerated, drove up over the curb and drove directly at the deputy, trying to run him over,” Fagerstrom said.

Fearing for his safety, the deputy fired several shots at the vehicle, but no one was hit, police said. Tremato continued driving over additional curbs and through a planter area and then sped off through the parking lot toward Costco.

“Another motorist turned into his path and he rammed her car up on a curb and near the photo kiosk,” Fagerstrom said.

Tremato then drove away from that collision and fled northbound through the Costco lot and turned eastbound on 205th, with three Shoreline police cars in pursuit.

“He was driving at a very high rate of speed and several times he drove over the concrete median into westbound lanes of traffic, forcing on-coming cars off the roadway right during rush-hour traffic,” Fagerstrom said.

Tremato lost control, completely flattened a telephone booth and smashed into some gas pumps at a 76 Gas Station on the corner of 205th and 76th.

Gursewak Brar, the owner of the gas station, cut off the gas pumps just in time, as he saw the van coming for the telephone booth. The van smashed into the booth, which flew in the air and hit Brar on the leg, causing him to fall down, he said.

“I shut off the pumps right away, then I saw the phone booth coming and I tried to run, but it hit me,” Brar said.

Tremato jumped out of the van, and fled on foot over a fence and down a 15-foot deep embankment down to 76th Street into Edmonds. Three Shoreline police cars followed him.

Four Edmonds police cars responded to the scene and three detectives followed, said Edmonds Police Chief David Stern.

Tremato ran directly into the path of an Edmonds police car, was struck and bounced off the hood onto the pavement, where he was immediately taken into custody and transported to Harborview.

Tremato faces the possibility of being charged with possession of stolen property, forgery, felony eluding, felony hit and run, vehicular assault, malicious mischief and now, felony escape.

In April 2002, Tremato was one of the two skateboarders involved in a scuffle with a man in the University District that ended in the man’s death.

According to media reports, Tremato pushed the victim, Demetri Andrews, to the ground and Timothy Strano, another skateboarder, hit Andrews over the head with his skateboard.

Andrews later died of his head injuries and Strano was charged with second degree murder. Tremato was not charged in that incident.