Suspect in alleged stolen vehicle takes police on three county chase with young son in car seat

SEATTLE — A three-county police pursuit ends in an unsuspecting South Seattle neighborhood.

The driver fled leaving behind his girlfriend and four-year-old son.

The chase began at about 9:44 this Sunday morning in Pierce County when a deputy determined the Ford F-550 pickup was stolen.

The driver took off, striking two vehicles before jumping on I-5 and speeding through King and Snohomish Counties then back to King County.

It took nearly two hours for all of this to come to an end. It was just before 11:30 that the driver finally gave up in the gravel on Renton Avenue South.

He jumped out of the vehicle and ran off.

It was an unusual scene, even in this South Seattle neighborhood. What turned out to be a stolen pickup truck and a gaggle of Washington State troopers standing nearby.

“And that’s when everything was going chaos,” said Evelyn Heras, “because he was running away.”

Heras was just waking up when the man crashed his vehicle not far from her apartment. But a neighbor heard it all. Evelyn translated her Spanish.

“She was, she was in the window when everything happened,” Heras told us. “Like when the car like went like really, like fast. That’s when the tire got off. That’s when like immediately the guy, the guy who was driving, ran off.”

According to the Pierce County Sheriff, a deputy spotted the man slumped at the wheel of the stolen F 550 pickup in the 8400 block of 207th Street East at about 9:44 Sunday morning.

As the deputy waited for backup, the man began driving away and kept going. So, they gave chase. The DOT cam picked up the pursuit on I-5 as the man drove through King then Snohomish Counties.

“He ended up making a U-Turn in Snohomish County,” said WSP Sgt. Cliff Roberts, “crossed the median to get back onto southbound I-5 and came back into King County.”

When he would not stop, troopers put out spike strips. The driver finally got off the freeway, ultimately coming to rest on Renton Avenue South and South Holden Street.

Trooper Roberts says it was then that they realized his girlfriend and four-year-old son were in the vehicle.

KIRO 7 approached her and asked what happened. “My son’s father was, yeah,” she began, her voice trailing off as a trooper asked her not to do an interview.

“No comment,” she then said.

One of the blown tires was left behind. As for the vehicle they were in, the Pierce County sheriff says it was stolen out of Bothell in June.

The suspect took off, but his young son identified him.

WSP says it knows him as a prolific car thief with several outstanding warrants.

Still, he remains on the loose.

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