A couple suspected of a crime spree in California that included a jailbreak and attempted murder of a police officer were arrested in SeaTac after a pursuit that ended with the driver repeatedly ramming police cars until the car was boxed in and couldn’t move, officials said.
Police said the incident started shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday when a SeaTac officer ran the license plate of a blue Subaru station wagon that was parked near 18800 block of 32nd Avenue South.
The plate check revealed that the car was stolen.
As the officer tried to talk to the couple in the car, it took off southbound, ramming the officer’s car as it sped away, police said.
A pursuit began and the car was boxed in by SeaTac police cars near South 188th Street and Pacific Highway South.
The woman who was driving jumped into the back seat and a man who was a passenger got into the driver’s seat, according to police.
Police said the man repeatedly rammed the police cars in an attempt to escape.
When the man could no longer move his car, the couple was ordered out of the car by police at gunpoint.
Tania Washington, 25, and her 24-year-old husband, Darnell Washington, were taken out of the car and detained.
Officers said they learned that Darnell Washington had escaped from the San Bernardino County Jail on Aug. 28 with the help of his wife. California authorities believe the couple went on a crime spree after the escape.
Darnell Washington is also suspected in the attempted murder of a police officer on Sept. 2.
On that day, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy approached a suspicious vehicle in the city of South El Monte. A gunfight began and the deputy was wounded by a shotgun blast.
Police said that on Friday, a 55-year-old woman named Susie Ko was found stabbed to death in her home in the city of Hercules near San Francisco and her blue Subaru station wagon was missing.
Investigators said the couple stopped by police in SeaTac was in Susie Ko’s Subaru, where a sawed-off shotgun was found inside.
Hercules Police Department officials said they plan to interview the pair about Ko's murder and why they were in the victim’s stolen car.
Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and Hercules Police Department are investigating if the couple committed a number of other crimes including carjacking and robbery while traveling their way from southern California to northern California.
KIRO
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