Police arrested a 28-year-old man Tuesday evening after an attempted robbery led to an escalating arms race inside a Ballard pharmacy.
Around 6:45 PM, the 28-year-old suspect walked into a drug store in the 5400 block of 15th Avenue Northwest, climbed on top of the store’s pharmacy counter and asked employees where they kept the morphine.
When an employee armed themselves with a mini commemorative Seattle Mariner’s baseball bat and told the man to leave, the suspect pulled his own full-sized baseball bat out of his backpack. He began moving toward pharmacy employees, leading another staff member to arm themselves with a can of pepper spray and point it at the suspect.
The man claimed he wasn’t afraid of being pepper sprayed, but nevertheless ceased his advance on store employees.
Police arrived moments later and took the man into custody. He was later booked into the King County Jail for robbery.