Patrol goes after most-wanted

LYNNWOOD – Jesse Beach didn’t know it, but he was going back to jail.

Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies just had to find him.

Beach’s warrant for first-degree robbery made him one of the county’s most-wanted this month and the target of an intensive search called Operation Gloves Off.

Michael O’Leary / The Herald Snohomish County Sheriff’s Deputies Bud McCurry (left) and Sgt. Anthony Aston (back right) take felony suspect Jesse Beach into custody at a Lynnwood apartment complex Thursday. McCurry searches Beach as Aston talks with Beach’s girlfriend.

Since November, one week a month, sheriff’s office-directed patrol and detectives focus on bringing in some of the county’s worst criminals.

“We’re looking for people really creating havoc in the community,” Sgt. Anthony Aston said. “Criminals don’t quit. We have to go out and stop them.”

Beach’s picture is one of eight hanging on Aston’s wall in the sheriff’s office north precinct.

By Thursday, two photos had black lines drawn through them. Both men are repeat offenders, behind bars on felony warrants, Aston said.

Deputies say the police pressure causes a drop in crime.

“After we started this, we began to notice our call load went down,” said Aston, who created Operation Gloves Off. “They can’t sling dope, they can’t steal mail because we’re hot on them.”

The strategy fits the overall goal of the directed patrol unit, which targets trends in specific crimes.

“There’s a few bad apples out there causing 90 percent of the problems,” Deputy Adam Malaby said. “If you can get those people off the street, you really start to see results.”

Directed patrol deputies Malaby and Joe Dunn often follow up on cases in north Snohomish County that patrol deputies answering 911 calls don’t have time for. The two work closely with patrol deputies and the precinct’s property crime detectives, Bud McCurry and Dwayne Sandrin.

All participate in Operation Gloves Off, which headed up to Stanwood on Thursday on a tip that Beach was staying at a two-story house near downtown.

The tip was a bust – no Beach. But another tip led officers to an apartment in Lynnwood where Beach might be living.

“When we’re looking for somebody, we always come across something else,” Dunn said. “We’ve arrested a lot of people we’ve been looking for.”

Beach was charged in January with robbing two people at gunpoint. Another man also participated in the November robbery, prosecutors say.

A check of the Lynnwood apartment gave deputies a quick answer. Within minutes, Beach was in handcuffs.

He denied being involved in the robbery, saying he didn’t know he had a warrant. Malaby booked him into jail, where as of Monday night he was held on $50,000 bail.

“I just talked with our victim, and he said he could sleep well at night,” McCurry said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Herald reporter Diana Hefley contributed to this article.