#2021-070191/East Precinct/First Watch:
On 03-23-2021 at 0327 hours, an officer was driving and had entered the East Precinct police lot. While waiting for the garage door to close, the officer observed a subject attempt to break the sensor beam with something to cause the door to stop. The attempt failed and the officer confronted the suspect and told them to leave. They then called into the precinct and advised a Sergeant. The subject was observed on camera, still in the area of the garage. First watch officers contacted the subject who stated, at first, that he was just messing around. He then stated that he was trying to find a place to sleep. The subject was found to have history out of Pierce County for narcotics and theft. The subject was warned about trying to gain access to the garage.
#2021-070390/West Precinct/First Watch:
On 03-23-2021 at 1003 hours, shop manager at Charles Street noticed a personal vehicle attempting to dispense fuel at the pumps. Manager confronted the suspect, who refused to identify himself and fled the scene. The vehicle was re-acquired by traffic and patrol units contacted. The suspect still would not identify himself but was ultimately identified via JILS. It was determined the vehicle owner is a pilot, who had parked his car (and left the key) in a hangar in Renton and did not know his vehicle was stolen. Mercer Island contacted the reporting officer, who signed a stolen vehicle report and then responded to retrieve his vehicle. Search upon arrest, the key to the high-end Mercedes was located in the suspect’s pocket. The verbally aggressive suspect was booked for Investigation of Auto theft.
#2021-070897/North Precinct/Third Watch:
On 03-23-2021 at 2021 hours, officers responded to a disturbance between neighbors who share a common driveway to their garages. Victim stated that he just got home, and his neighbor’s guest parked their vehicle in front of his garage, blocking his access to his garage. Victim confronted the neighbor and during the verbal altercation, the victim stated that the neighbor used derogatory language about his race. The victim called 911 to report the bias incident and the neighbor went back into his own home. All parties, including an uninvolved neighbor, were contacted and interviewed. The victim stated that he had video evidence of the incident on his phone however the footage was only short snippets that didn’t contain any usable evidence of the bias elements.