Escaped prisoner cornered by police in attic of MLT home

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Police and SWAT team members found Richard J. Anderson hiding in the attic of his parents’ home June 17, a week after he escaped from a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office holding cell.

Anderson, 35, kicked the cell door open and ran because he believed he was facing life in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law, said his brother Steve Anderson, 33, of Seattle.

“He panicked. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison,” said Steve Anderson, whose brother called him June 14. “But he was planning to turn himself in. He said he’d wait a week, then do it.”

Richard Anderson, who has an extensive criminal history, was arrested June 10 on suspicion of burglary after a resident along Little Bear Creek Road reported seeing a man breaking into a neighbor’s house with a crowbar, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.

He was handcuffed and awaiting transport from the sheriff’s office’s south precinct in Mill Creek to the Snohomish County Jail when he escaped, Jorgensen said.

Officers surrounded Anderson’s parents’ home in the 22300 block of 51st Avenue W. about 2 p.m. after a neighbor reported that Anderson had returned there in his parents’ truck, Mountlake Terrace Police Chief Scott Smith said.

Smith added they were familiar who Richard Anderson was.

“We have dealt with him before,” Smith said.

Police had checked the house in the morning and noticed it had been entered, but didn’t find Richard Anderson then, Smith said.

Officers tried using a bullhorn to persuade him to surrender on June 17, and phoned the house, Smith said.

“He picked up the phone several times, but he didn’t talk to us,” he said.

Neighbors were told to stay inside, but were not evacuated.

Mariana Grant, who moved to Mountlake Terrace from Shoreline just a couple months ago was one of the neighbors who was blocked out of her home for awhile.

“They told me we could go back (to our house) but we had to stay inside and on one certain side of our house,” Grant said.

Grant’s house was on the same street as the barricaded house, but she wasn’t aware of how close it was to her house.

The containment area was near or encompassed the boundaries of three schools within the district: Terrace Park School, Brier Terrace Middle School and Mountlake Terrace Elementary. According to school officials, students living within this area, who had not already been picked up by parents, were transported to Terrace Park, where they had to be picked up by a parent with photo identification. (SEE RELATED STORY)

Officers entered the house about 4:45 p.m. to conduct a “slow and methodical” search, Smith said. Members of the sheriff’s SWAT team and Mountlake Terrace police who serve on the south Snohomish County SWAT team made the entry, Smith said.

“We didn’t believe he was armed or that there were weapons in the house, and we felt like it was an appropriate time” to go in, he said.

Police found Anderson crouched in the back corner of his parents’ attic shortly before 5:30 p.m. June 17. He wasn’t armed.

“They told him he didn’t have two strikes, then he gave himself up,” Steve Anderson said.

Richard Anderson was dehydrated from being in the hot attic, and was checked by waiting paramedics.

“The police did a good job,” his brother said. “They did what they had to do. I’m just glad no one got hurt.”

So were worried neighbors. “I’m glad they caught him,” said Jeff Boe, 39, who lives around the corner from the Anderson house. “This usually is a good, safe neighborhood.”

The brothers’ parents are on vacation in Florida, Steve Anderson said. His brother called their mother from the house after police had surrounded it.

“As a family, we’re going to stand by him and hope he gets through this,” Steve Anderson said. “I think he needs some help and needs to get his life on the right track.”

Richard Anderson was booked into Snohomish County Jail June 17 on warrants for residential burglary and second-degree escape.

Enterprise editor Shannon Sessions contributed to this article.