ARLINGTON — A Lynnwood man fled police in an attempted traffic stop, later carjacked a vehicle from a pregnant woman and was involved in three separate crashes in less than an hour, according to a police report filed in Everett District Court.
Judge Anthony Howard denied a defense request to release the 39-year-old defendant from custody Wednesday and set bail at $150,000, noting the defendant has been involved in numerous attempts to elude police.
“The court finds you are extremely likely to commit a violent driving-related offense if you are released from custody,” Howard told the driver during a 10-minute probable cause hearing Wednesday at Snohomish County Courthouse.
Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy responded to a report of a hit-and-run collision in the area of 127th Drive NE and Highway 92 in Lake Stevens.
The deputy located the suspect taking up both lanes and driving the wrong direction on Highway 92 in a black 2003 Mercedes Benz, court records say. As the deputy turned around and caught up to the Mercedes Benz in his patrol vehicle with lights and siren, the suspect vehicle appeared to increase its speed.
At one point during the pursuit, the deputy wrote, the driver “then put his hands out the window and showed me his middle finger of his left hand,” according to court records.
The pursuit became too dangerous, causing the deputy to end it.
Minutes later, police responded to the scene of a second hit-and-run a few miles away at Highway 92 and Highway 9. Ten minutes later, troopers responded to a five-vehicle collision in the 9300 block of Highway 9 east of Marysville. The suspect’s vehicle rolled onto its roof, but the suspect got out and allegedly took another vehicle, a 2002 Subaru Impreza, from a pregnant woman. She had relatively minor injuries and was taken to a hospital.
Arlington Police Department officers and sheriff’s deputies later found the suspect driving south on 91st Avenue NE.
Because the stolen Subaru was approaching a neighborhood, an Arlington police officer tried to use a pursuit intervention technique to stop the vehicle, but the driver escaped. A second pursuit intervention technique succeeded. The suspect was taken into custody.
Judge Howard found probable cause for one count each of reckless driving, driving under the influence and possession of a stolen vehicle, as well as two counts of hit-and-run from an injury crash.
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