SEATTLE — Suspects believed to be driving stolen cars intentionally rammed into occupied cars and Seattle police vehicles while escaping from law enforcement in two separate incidents Friday night and Saturday morning.
The first incident occurred just before 11 p.m. on Friday in the Queen Anne neighborhood.
Officers located a suspect in a stolen vehicle in the 600 block of Elliot Avenue West. When officers tried to stop the vehicle, the suspect reversed into an unoccupied police car and pushed the patrol car into the roadway. The patrol car came to a stop against another occupied police vehicle. The officer was not injured.
The suspect rammed into several other occupied cars while maneuvering to escape police.
The suspect fled heading northbound on 15th Avenue West.
The second incident occurred around 9:15 a.m. on Saturday when police located a different stolen vehicle on the 2700 block of Rainier Avenue South.
The vehicle fled as officers approached.
About half an hour later, officers located the same car in an alleyway on the 1900 block of South Hanford Street. When officers tried to stop the vehicle, the suspect rammed the stolen car into the front of a police vehicle and fled the scene. The officer driving the patrol car was uninjured. The patrol car sustained minor damage.
Seattle police are looking for suspects and stolen vehicles.
In the wake of these crimes, police asked the public to be aware that there has been an increase in stolen vehicle crime.
Seattle officer Shawn Weismiller urged the public to “be vigilant when they leave their vehicle unattended,” and, “try not to leave the keys in it and running.”
Weismiller added that people should “try to reduce the amount of valuable items that are inside their vehicles.”
Meanwhile, lawmakers are discussing ways to get a handle on the growing problem of car thefts.
Senator Christine Rolfes, D-Kitsap Peninsula, cosponsored Senate Bill 5672 in Olympia, which would support and protect Washington’s Auto Theft Prevention Account, which gives grants to local task forces for enforcing and prosecuting this crime.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously and passed out of the House Committee on Appropriations last week.
“They’re not necessarily being stolen and resold, they’re being stolen and then used to commit crimes and then ditched,” Rolfes told KING 5. “That’s a different aspect to car theft than we’ve seen in the past. You think, traditionally, of parts being sold.”
Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, spoke in favor of the legislation.
“I know we’ve had members on both sides of the aisle have to deal with this personally, some more than once," Corry said in the House Appropriations Committee. "This is something that we need to get after and we need to solve in our state. And hopefully, we can get there with this bill."