PUYALLUP, Wash — People living in Puyallup are growing concerned after a few recent crimes in the area.
Early Sunday morning, an attempted burglary ended with an off-duty Federal Way police officer getting shot.
Late Monday night, vandals took out a power line, which knocked out power for much of downtown Puyallup. The outage lasted until early Tuesday morning, which forced a number of schools in Puyallup to get a late start.
Another crime in Puyallup involved suspects who were believed to be breaking into cars. As police arrived on scene and approached the suspects, one of them rammed their vehicle into two Puyallup police cruisers in their successful attempt to get away.
“It’s a very dangerous situation,” said Captain Jason Visnaw of the Puyallup Police Department. “There’s a level of violence on the suspect's part that is willing to ram a marked patrol car to flee.”
Visnaw said, due to state laws, officers were not able to chase the suspects.
As of Tuesday night, one suspect has been apprehended while the other is on the run. Visnaw said that one of the arrests in the ramming incident came after a call from someone in the community.
“We really rely on our citizens to let us know what’s going on, right?" Visnaw said. "They’re the first line of defense against crime.”
“I think it’s common knowledge that crime is on the rise, especially over the last year or so,” said Visnaw. “I think there’s probably people in a lot of quiet towns that are asking why is crime on the rise, especially violent crime.”
The city of Puyallup is thought of as a quiet town, especially by those who call it home.
“Nothing really exciting ever happens in this area,” said Christina Cardenas, a Puyallup resident of nearly 20 years. “Downtown Puyallup is, I would say, definitely more family-oriented. Everybody knows each other.”