Kent Police arrested a teenage male for investigation of malicious mischief after he allegedly kicked a pickup at Lake Meridian Park and then joined friends in a vehicle to chase down the truck after the driver punched him.
Officers on the Lake Meridian police boat were dispatched to a possible fight at the boat ramp at about 7:30 p.m. July 5 in the 26600 block of 148th Avenue Southeast, according to the police report.
Officers left the boat and were able to break up the incident in the parking lot between several people.
The driver of pickup told police the incident started when he tried to use a circle drive in the park and several males stood in the driveway to block his truck. The man then started to blow his horn and told the males, who were yelling at him and his daughter, to move. One teen approached the driver’s window so the driver punched him in the face and then drove away.
The group got in a vehicle and followed the man and his daughter. The daughter called an uncle who was at the boat ramp.
When both vehicles arrived near the boat ramp, the uncle had a tire iron in his hand and told the group to stay back from the pickup. Officers then arrived and told the man to put the tire iron away, which he did.
The teen told police he thought the pickup driver had yelled racial slurs at him so he approached the truck.
“You don’t know what it is to be black,” the teen told police.
An officer told the teen it’s not a crime to call someone names but it is a crime to damage a vehicle. The teen wanted an assault charge against the driver but officers told him the man had a right to protect himself because he was sitting in a vehicle and someone aggressively approached his window.
Assault
Police arrested a man for investigation of fourth-degree assault after he reportedly punched his girlfriend in the arm and scratched her chest during a dispute at about 2:52 a.m. July 6 near the 1000 block of Third Avenue South downtown.
Officers saw a man walking northbound on Third Avenue with a shirt and shorts but no shoes, according to the police report.
The man told police he had a fight with his girlfriend and she took his shoes and hat. Police then saw the girlfriend walking up the street.
The woman told officers she had a fight with her boyfriend, who reportedly punched her in the arm and scratched her chest as he grabbed her shirt and pushed her into a heater.
The boyfriend claimed the woman started the fight and kneed him and pushed him. Officers arrested the boyfriend because of the scratches on the woman while he had no visible signs of any injury, making him the primary aggressor, according to the report.
Pursuit
A police officer chased a vehicle for about 6.4 miles at about 10:17 p.m. July 6 along Kent-Des Moines Road and Interstate 5 before a commanding officer called off the pursuit after it reached speeds of up to 105 mph.
The officer saw a vehicle westbound on Kent-Des Moines Road and called in the license plate when he couldn’t see the driver because of tinted windows, according to the police report.
The plate came back registered to a Mazda RX-7 but the officer noted he followed an Acura. The officer pulled behind the car and turned on his overhead lights, but the car then accelerated near Military Road.
The officer turned on his siren and started to pursue the car. The driver then made a u-turn along Kent-Des Moines Road and headed eastbound to take the I-5 north onramp.
Police followed the car onto the freeway and speeds reached about 80 mph in the carpool lane before the driver sped up to approximately 105 mph and headed past the I-405 interchange. The officer was ordered by a commanding officer to pull off the pursuit as he watched the driver speed away westbound on Highway 599. No reasons were given in the report for calling off the pursuit, but police will call off a chase if it becomes dangerous to other drivers on the road and depending on what type of crime might have been committed.
The officer noted in the report that no confirmation had been made about whether the plates on the car had been reported as stolen or not.
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