EVERETT — A convicted felon who sparked a manhunt that shut down I-5 near Everett on Sept. 1 has been charged with enough felonies to land him in prison for years.
Theodore Ohms, 23, is accused of shooting at a sheriff’s deputy during a high-speed chase and running from the scene of an injury accident. The chase, the crash and the manhunt stranded thousands of commuters. Rifle-toting police officers swarmed neighborhoods east and west of the freeway, warning people to take cover. A 49-year-old woman was severely injured in the crash and remains hospitalized.
An eager and toothy police dog ended the fugitive’s run for freedom. The dog found Ohms hiding in a wooded area in Everett’s Beverly Park neighborhood. Ohms later was taken to a hospital to be treated for at least one bite.
“He was calm and bragged about having been in a pursuit with officers a few weeks earlier when he had not been caught,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Janice Albert wrote in court papers filed Tuesday.
Albert charged Ohms with first-degree assault with a firearm, unlawful gun possession, attempting to elude police and vehicular assault. All of the charges carry with them possible extra punishment because Ohms was on parole at the time of the chase. He is being held on $1 million bail.
Prosecutors say the one-man crime spree started with an attempted traffic stop. A sheriff’s deputy tried to pull over a Volkswagen Jetta with cancelled license plates in south Everett. Ohms sped off and led the deputy on a high-speed chase, court papers said. At one point during the chase, Ohms drove at the deputy, who had to swerve to avoid being hit, Albert wrote.
Police called off the pursuit for safety concerns but picked it up again on nearby Highway 526. That’s where Ohms, while still driving, popped up through the open sunroof and pointed a gun at a deputy, Albert wrote.
At least three shots were fired. One bullet bounced off the Jetta’s roof and struck the undercarriage of the deputy’s patrol car. The Jetta then raced onto northbound I-5.
The fleeing car struck a van south of 41st Street. The driver, Tamara Fietkau was injured when her van flipped on the freeway. Fietkau lost most of the tissue from her upper arm and she must undergo major reconstructive surgery, court papers said.
Ohms abandoned the Jetta and approached a pickup that had slowed because of the crash. He jumped in the bed of the truck and asked for a ride. The couple told police they dropped him off at Safeway on Evergreen Way.
He ran into a residential area between Broadway and Evergreen Way, court papers said. Police closed down the freeway and flooded the area with patrol cars, looking for the shooter. They believed he was still armed.
The trail led to a wooded area off Olympic Drive.
Ohms’ girlfriend, who was a passenger in the Jetta, told police that he’d bought methamphetamine just before the deputy tired to pull him over. She told police that when Ohms saw the deputy he said, “Sorry, but I have to do this,” and sped away, Albert wrote.
The woman told police she twice put the car into park to try to stop the chase. The woman later led police to a gun on Highway 526. She told detectives she grabbed gun and tossed it out the window of the Jetta after Ohms fired at the deputy.
Ohms told detectives he ran from police because he had a warrant for his arrest and didn’t want to go to jail, court papers said. He admitted to having a gun, but denied shooting at anyone, Albert wrote. Later he said he shot in the air because the cop didn’t stop after he flashed the gun. He called the crash on I-5 a “fender bender,” Albert wrote.
Ohms had a warrant for his arrest for failing to report to the state Department of Corrections, who was supervising him because of a drug conviction. He has been on community custody since March 2009.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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