SEQUIM, Wash. — A Sequim man was arrested last weekend after striking a car with a teen driver and passenger and threatening four young children playing in a church parking lot.
When police apprehended the suspect, he led them on a chase that resulted in his arrest after he took a roundabout at a high rate of speed and went off the road.
The Clallam County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) received a report of a hit and run that occurred on the 3000 block of Woodcock Road in Sequim at around 4 p.m. on Sept. 16. Deputies discovered the suspect had attempted to strike the victim's vehicle three times, and did so successfully once. The teenage driver had two juvenile passengers in the car at the time. No injuries were reported, according to deputies.
Later that same day around 9 p.m., sheriff's deputies received a call reporting threats made to a group of children at a church north of Sequim. The caller said her four young kids were playing in the church parking lot when an older man drove up to them, cursed at them and told them to leave, or he was going to kill them. The kids were scared and tried to run to a nearby home. Deputies said the suspect drove toward the children at a high speed to scare them.
The unique vehicle description that was relayed to dispatchers matched the information given about the hit and run earlier in the day.
Deputies spoke with the suspect later that night and developed probable cause to arrest him for assault in the second degree. The suspect spoke to deputies for 15 to 20 minutes while he was shut inside his vehicle as they tried to arrest him. But the suspect started the engine of his vehicle and began to drive away, as he spoke with deputies through the closed driver's window. The on-duty supervisor tried to pull in front of the suspect's vehicle to stop him from driving away, but the suspect drove towards the supervisor's vehicle and fled northbound.
Sheriff's deputies pursued the vehicle onto Sequim-Dungeness Way traveling north and attempted a PIT maneuver twice unsuccessfully.
Officials said the suspect approached a roundabout at Woodcock and Sequim-Dungeness at a high speed and struck a roundabout curb, causing him to go off the roadway and into a field.
After the collision, the suspect was taken into custody. There were no injuries, according to deputies.
The suspect was booked into the Clallam County Jail for assault in the second degree, eluding a police vehicle, obstructing a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. Deputies added charges of second-degree assault and a hit-and-run from earlier in the day.
