Kent police opened fire after a carjacking, police chase, and crash, involving at least four cars.
This snarled traffic on busy Pacific Highway South in Des Moines all afternoon, with the scene ending near South 224th Street.
It started on Thursday when Des Moines police spotted a stolen vehicle and put deflation devices on the tires. Shortly after, the suspects tried to carjack someone. It didn’t work out, but that’s when officers were able to give chase.
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A couple did get carjacked by those same suspects in Kent, at the AM/PM on Pacific Highway South.
“Literally we were there for two seconds and boom,” Roseangelica Davila, a Federal Way resident, said.
She and her boyfriend were in a white Honda Accord about to get gas when a man and woman approached them.
“I’m literally in shock and the person pulls out a gun and tells us to get out,” Davila said.
She said she heard sirens nearby and decided to comply. She said the man and woman suspects were in a black truck with flat tires. As they got into her vehicle, they backed out and hit the black truck three times while fleeing the gas station.
“I’m yelling like, ‘Hey, my car, my car!’” Davila said.
Multiple witnesses say the suspects in the stolen white Honda were driving down Pacific Highway South in the wrong direction and heading north in the southbound lanes. Meanwhile, police were in hot pursuit, using the proper lanes on the divided highway.
“We are at the stop light… I see almost 10 police cars with the flashing lights, then I saw the white car with the flat tire driving the wrong way, coming towards us,” Hassan Wuarsame, a Seattle taxi driver, said.
He was driving a yellow taxi cab with a customer from the airport.
“I pulled over the side and the guy squeezed between three cars and hit my car,” Wuarsame said.
The suspects also hit multiple other vehicles in the crash, including a work truck and a small silver SUV. People say at some point they heard gunfire.
“I see the police have a gun and I lay down my head,” Wuarsame said.
That’s when the suspects tried to carjack another victim at gunpoint. Kent police say that’s when an officer intervened, firing his handgun, but it appears no one was hit.
“The suspect tried to take his car, tried to hijack his car, too. Because the previous one was stolen three blocks away,” said Cynthia Garcia, a friend of the victim who was helping translate. These latest victims were in a white Nissan.
She said the man covered his wife with his body to protect her.
“The gun two to three times at them, two different angles, and tried to open the car door,” Garcia said. “His wife had to be sent to the hospital because she was having a little panic attack.”
Chopper 7 shows Des Moines police arresting one of the suspects. Officers said both a man and a woman were arrested.
“We are incredibly fortunate that the suspects in this matter did not seriously injure or kill anyone. I am thankful that our officers were able to intervene, and the dangerous suspects are in custody,” said Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla in a statement posted on social media.
Per standard protocol, the officer who discharged his firearm is on paid administrative leave.
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