Police searching for the suspects in a carjacking also caught a man attempting to break into a home in the Rainier Vista neighborhood on Sunday afternoon.
At about 3:00 p.m., a 911 caller reported they had just been carjacked at gunpoint in the Chinatown-International District. Officers responded to 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street and met with the victims.
A group of four male suspects had approached the victims as they walked up to their parked car. Two of the suspects threatened the victims with guns and demanded their keys and wallets. The suspects then fled in the victims’ car.
Police began searching for the stolen car, and an officer soon spotted it in the 3000 block of South Estelle Street. Upon seeing the patrol vehicle, the suspects abandoned the car and fled on foot. Officers chased one of the men through a pea-patch and a residential neighborhood, eventually catching and arresting him a couple blocks away. The man was carrying a stolen handgun in his pocket.
While additional officers continued to search the neighborhood for the rest of the carjackers, a 911 caller reported someone breaking into a home several blocks south of where the stolen car was recovered. Officers rushed to the scene, expecting the burglar to be one of the remaining suspects. Police took the man into custody, but learned he had no association with the carjacking, and just happened to be burglarizing a home in the area at the same time.
Both suspects were booked into King County Jail, and detectives will continue to investigate the carjacking to identify the additional suspects.