EVERETT – One moment she was in a traffic jam.
The next thing Gina Ive knew, there were guns pointed her direction. Men were yelling for her to get out of her car.
“I was stopped and stunned,” Ive, 25, said Monday.
Alone, disoriented and scared, she stood in the middle of the U.S. 2 trestle Friday afternoon watching two men steal her car and speed away.
“I was just looking at them driving away and thinking, ‘That’s my car,’ ” she said.
Ive, an advertising account executive at The Herald, was caught in the middle of a crime spree that spanned from Lake Stevens to Mill Creek on Friday.
Two men led police on a high-speed chase, carjacking at least two vehicles along the way. The rampage caused traffic accidents and sent people scrambling for cover. It ended in gunfire outside of the Everett Mall and a busy Mill Creek shopping center.
One suspect, 31, of Everett, remained at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in satisfactory condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
An Everett police sergeant shot the man multiple times after the man attempted to flee into the woods behind the Fred Meyer store on 132nd Street NE, police said.
A second man, Eric M. Johnson, 24, of Seattle, was arrested outside the Everett Mall. He appeared Monday in Everett District Court and is being held on $250,000 bail for investigation of first-degree robbery and eluding police, both felonies.
Johnson told detectives he initially didn’t stop for officers because he has a suspended license and didn’t want to go to jail on the misdemeanor charge, according to a police affidavit filed in Everett District Court.
Just three days before Friday’s chaos, Johnson was stopped in Lynnwood, cited for driving with no license and let go, court records show.
Friday’s events started after two men attempted to outrun Lake Stevens police.
The men reportedly had been seen breaking into a truck. Johnson later told police he and his accomplice were scrounging for money, according to court documents.
Lake Stevens officers tried to stop the men, but the pair refused to pull over. Their truck reached speeds nearing 100 mph and headed into oncoming traffic, police said.
Johnson allegedly was behind the wheel, and the other man was in the passenger seat when the men raced into rush-hour traffic on the U.S. 2 trestle.
The truck stalled and the two men bailed out, according to court papers. Johnson told police he peered over the railing and thought about jumping, but decided it was too far.
Inching forward in slow traffic, Ive said, she watched in amazement as two men pointed small handguns at a car in front of her.
The driver of that car raced off.
She was next in line.
“I didn’t feel like they were going to harm me,” she said. “It seemed like they wanted to get away from someone.”
Ive turned off her silver Mazda 3 sedan and scrambled out.
“I watched them drive my car away,” she said. “At that point I knew they were going to crash my car.”
Police had lost sight of the men but eventually picked up their trail in south Everett. The men raced in and out of the city, leaving car crashes in their wake. A police helicopter kept the stolen Mazda in sight, and officers followed it to the Everett Mall.
That’s where the two men abandoned the battered car. They ducked into the mall.
Witnesses inside the mall reported seeing them toting handguns. One witness told police he followed the men but backed off when one pointed a gun at him, according to court records.
The men raced outside. A witness said they attempted to steal his van, knocking on the windows with handguns. That driver ignored the demands and sped off.
Johnson’s alleged partner managed to take a pickup truck at gunpoint. Before the man could get out of the mall parking lot, a sheriff’s lieutenant fired a single shot, according to the police affidavit.
Johnson was arrested at the mall.
Everett police caught up with Johnson’s alleged accomplice at the Fred Meyer.
The man crashed the pickup truck just outside the store entrance and ran inside. Frightened shoppers dove for cover.
Police surrounded the building. Johnson’s alleged accomplice reportedly ran out the back, headed toward a wooded area. He was shot by an Everett police sergeant. Investigators recovered a handgun.
Johnson told police he never had a gun during the crime spree, according to court papers. He told investigators he lives out of his truck, is unemployed and has a drug problem, according to a police affidavit.
When Lynnwood police stopped Johnson last week, they followed department policy and didn’t book him in jail, Lynnwood police spokeswoman Shannon Sessions said. The policy allows officers discretion in whether to make arrests in such cases, she said.
Johnson was ticketed for driving with a suspended license in the third degree and for not having a driver’s license in his possession. He wasn’t allowed to drive away and was not booked into jail, Sessions said.
Late last year, Everett police also cited Johnson for driving with a suspended license and possession of marijuana.
Court records show Johnson’s alleged accomplice has a lengthy criminal history and has served time in jail for theft and assault.
Ive said she caught up with her stolen car outside the mall. Police brought her there to identify the mangled mess.
“I was going to be very surprised if I got it back in one piece, and then I didn’t,” Ive said.
The Mazda, her purse and all her work papers were impounded as evidence by police, she said Monday. She’s not sure when she’ll get her property back.
A sheriff’s deputy took Ive to a coffee shop near the Mall. Her husband and father brought her home.
Once there, she did some yard work, then relaxed.
“I just wanted to be at home and not drive anywhere,” she said.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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