STOLEN JEEP HITS WASHINGTON DEPUTY
Three people in a stolen Jeep Cherokee drove away from a sheriff's deputy who told them to stop, hit another deputy in their haste, dodged bullets and ended up at the bottom of a deep ditch when they drove off the road. All because they wanted a bite to eat at Taco Bell.
Neither the deputy nor any of the suspects were seriously injured in Sunday's mayhem, but two men and a woman -- one of whom drove the stolen vehicle -- are now in police custody, said Snohomish County Sheriff's Department Spokeswoman Rebecca Hover. It started at about 2:30 p.m., when a sheriff's deputy spotted the stolen Jeep near Highway 99 in Lynnwood, Hover said.
The deputy called for help, and followed the sport utility vehicle into the drive-through at a Taco Bell in the 14800 block of Highway 99, she said. Other deputies moved into the area and told the driver to stop, but instead the driver tried to get away and hit a deputy in the process.
Two deputies began firing on the Jeep, but the vehicle got away, Hover said. The Jeep made its way to the 15200 block of 40th Avenue W. and turned into the long, wide driveway of an apartment complex, with deputies in pursuit, she said.
"I guess the driver must have thought this driveway was a road," said Chris Brown, who watched the incident from the window of a nearby condominium.
Instead of finding an escape route, the driver quickly came to the end of the driveway, veered off the pavement and crashed in a deep ditch that separates the apartment complex from Autumn Grove Condominiums.
Shaleen Cook was visiting her mother, who lives in the Autumn Grove complex, and said she warned her children to stay inside when she saw police officers with guns drawn. After the Jeep crashed, the two men tried to climb into the bare-limbed trees that grow out of the ditch, said Cliff Eberly, who was also visiting Autumn Grove. Deputies had all three people in handcuffs right away, Cook said.
The deputy who had been hit by the Jeep was not seriously injured, Hover said. He was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure and released. Both men and the woman who were in the Jeep are in police custody; two of them were taken to hospitals for minor injuries from the crash, and both were released from the hospital Sunday. The incident is under investigation by the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, which handles incidents in which an officer is injured or police force is used.
The driver of the stolen vehicle was taken to Snohomish County Jail on charges of assault, possession of stolen property and eluding police, Strieck said.
The woman was booked at the jail on an unrelated charge, and the second man will be released, he said. Both deputies who fired on the Jeep have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard protocol for such incidents, Strieck said.
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