It was like something out of a good old cartoon: a bad man fleeing the law with such speediness that he leaves a trail of dust behind him.
Only this wasn’t a Saturday morning cartoon — it was downtown Seattle, and the lawmen were Seattle’s Finest.
On August 4th at approximately 3:45 p.m. officers were working “Directed Patrol” in Pioneer Square and were only a couple blocks away when a strong-arm robbery was broadcast over the police radio as having just occurred at 2nd Avenue and Yesler Way.
One officer made contact with the victim while other officers conducted an area search for the suspect. After talking to the victim, a more detailed suspect description and last known direction of travel was broadcast. A veteran officer did an excellent job of guessing where the suspect might have gone, which was the Five Star Parking garage located at 1st Avenue and Columbia Street.
While searching the parking garage the officer noticed someone underneath a car. As soon as the officer shined his spotlight on the suspect, with lightning speed, the suspect slid out from underneath the car, ran out of the parking garage and westbound on Columbia Street.
The suspect ran so fast he literally ran right out of his shoe and left a trail of dust behind him.
And although the suspect briefly eluded the lawman, additional officers quickly converged on the area and shortly thereafter located the suspect hiding underneath yet another car on Western Avenue just south of Columbia Street.
The 38-year-old male suspect was taken into custody, positively identified by the victim and subsequently booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Robbery.
The victim was not injured during the robbery.