Police: Suspect nearly ran over Edmonds officers

Published 12:20 pm Wednesday, November 25, 2020

EDMONDS — A Kent man was arrested Tuesday night after nearly running over two officers and ramming two patrol cars, according to Edmonds police.

The man, 24, was booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of three counts of first-degree assault, two counts of malicious mischief, eluding a police vehicle and driving with a suspended license. He also had two felony warrants and two misdemeanor warrants.

His passenger, a 38-year-old woman, also was arrested on a Department of Corrections warrant for drug violations.

There were no reports of injuries, either to the officers or the suspects.

Police initially were responding to reports of a suspicious vehicle near downtown Edmonds just after 10 p.m. According to a 911 caller, someone was driving a Dodge Caravan through the neighborhood in the 900 block of Daley Street and opening mailboxes.

As police approached, they saw a white Dodge Caravan leaving the area. They stopped the minivan on 86th Place W, a narrow dead-end street just off Bowdoin Way. Two officers got out of the patrol car. Then the suspect allegedly made a sudden U-turn and quickly accelerated toward them.

“The driver appeared to have floored the gas, (revving) the engine loudly as it rammed into the driver’s door of our car,” one of the officers wrote in a police report.

One officer jumped out of the way and into a large bush, which the suspect reportedly then drove through, missing the officer by less than a foot, according to court papers.

The suspect allegedly sideswiped the patrol car, shattering the driver’s side window and causing “significant body damage” — and causing another officer to jump out of the way.

“It was clear to me based on the positioning of both cars that with no where else to drive, the driver of the van was willing to run over (the other officer) and I to escape,” an officer wrote.

Meanwhile, an Edmonds police sergeant was just turning onto 86th Place W. The suspect allegedly drove straight into his patrol car, damaging the driver’s side push bar and mirror.

A brief pursuit ensued, then the suspects abandoned their vehicle near the Five Corners neighborhood and ran. A police dog found a woman crouched down on the wooden deck of an abandoned house. At first, she claimed to live in the house but couldn’t provide any proof, according to court papers. Later she told officers she was the passenger in the van.

The suspected driver was found hiding curled up in a garbage can outside of a house. As officers arrested him, he asked what happened, claiming he was out walking. A glass pipe, likely used for drugs, was found after officers searched him.

“Both were arrested without incident or injury,” according to a news release.

The suspects’ vehicle was impounded pending a search warrant. Lynnwood police investigated the crash scene. Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies and police from Mountlake Terrace, Brier and Mill Creek had also responded to the scene.