The following information was compiled from Renton Police Department case reports.
Eight men were arrested in March in ongoing efforts by the Renton Police Department to combat sex trafficking of minors.
The sting was conducted by the Special Operations Division at a hotel on Grady Way. Six men were arrested during the operation on March 25 and the other two were arrested later.
After his arrest, a 34-year-old man told officers, “I knew I shouldn’t have come. I was only going to watch them.”
The men were booked into the SCORE regional jail.
MAN WITH AN AX: “They’re fighting. He’s got an ax,” the crowd yelled as Renton Police officers converged on the Metro Transit Center March 20 in downtown Renton.
An 18-year-old man fled, with a woman. An officer gave chase, losing sight of them in traffic on South Third Street.
Then, they were walking nonchalantly toward the officer; the man had his hands down his front waistline. Twice he refused the officer’s command to get on the ground. A third time, the officer pushed him to the ground and handcuffed him.
The suspect denied having a hatchet or knives.
A crowd started to form around the officers, recording the arrest on their phones. They yelled, “Get off him.” “He did what you said.” “Now get off him.”
The suspect became verbally confrontational. He tried to push up, but the officer pushed him to the ground.
The incident started when the suspect pulled a hatchet while fighting with another man at the transit center, according to witnesses. The second man had stepped in to help his girlfriend, who was being punched by the woman with the suspect.
The suspect admitted he tossed away the hatchet in the Piazza Park, but it wasn’t found.
The case was turned over to the King County Sheriff’s Office Transit Division for further investigation.
A SUSPICIOUS CRIME: A 26-year-old Tacoma man picked up a total stranger on Grady Way South at about 6:40 p.m. March 24, drove him to an unknown apartment building where the stranger had a vehicle waiting to take him away.
The abnormal chain of events led the Renton Police officer to believe the man’s story about being robbed at gunpoint wasn’t true.
He called police from a nearby restaurant. He told officers the suspect stuck a handgun in his ribcage and demanded his belongings. He turned over his iPhone and set of keys. He didn’t touch the loaded 9mm Sig Sauer pistol shoved down his pants.
The officer told the victim he thought this was really a drug deal gone bad.
Meanwhile, other officers gave chase to the suspect’s getaway vehicle, which was spotted on Benson Drive South. The driver bailed out and eluded a Kent Police K9 unit.
The investigation was dropped because the Tacoma man didn’t want anything to happen to the suspect, whom officers were able to identify through ownership records to the car, and didn’t want the case pursued.
That led the officer to believe even more that there was something more to this story.
STOLEN BELONGINGS: Several thousands of dollars of personal belongings were stolen during the day March 30 at a home in the 500 block of Union Avenue Northeast.
The burglars entered through a window in the basement laundry room. They rifled through bedroom cabinets.
Computer and camera equipment were among the items stolen.
ASSAULT SUSPECT APPREHENDED: A 20-year-old Auburn man, apparently high on the hallucinogenic PCP, struggled with Renton Police officers March 29 on Interstate 405.
The man was walking on the shoulder of the Northeast 44th Street on-ramp to I-405 at about 11:30 a.m. He started to walk away when a Renton officer approached him.
The officer drew a Taser; the suspect ignored commands to get on the ground. Other officers arrived and in a struggle that lasted about two minutes, the suspect hit one of them in the body and head and placed his arm around an officer’s neck.
It was determined the suspect had assaulted a woman on I-405. Renton officers had responded to the call initially because they were closer than state troopers, who took custody of the suspect after his arrest and continued the investigation.
