The following information is compiled from Renton Police Department case reports.
A Valley Medical Hospital nurse who speaks Russian helped a Renton police officer with translation as the officer arrested a man who spent nearly all day in the hospital lobby Feb. 14.
Hospital security staff repeatedly asked the 61-year-old Seattle man to leave, but he refused. He didn’t need medical attention. The officer had contacted him the day before for extreme intoxication elsewhere.
The officer twice asked the nurse to tell the man he needed to leave or face arrest. He cursed at the officer in Russian, which the nurse translated.
The officer then took the man’s arm, but the man jerked away and said in English, “Don’t touch me.” After a struggle with two officers, the man was placed in handcuffs and taken to the SCORE jail, where he was booked for investigation of first-degree criminal trespass.
Man looking for dog robbed of cell
A 30-year-old Seattle man out looking for his friend’s dog just after midnight Feb. 15 was robbed of his cell phone.
The man had stopped at the side of Southeast Fifth Street to answer a cell call when a man walked up to the side of his car. The man asked if the victim was looking for something and victim answered, his dog.
The suspect responded, “I won, give me your phone.” He leaned into the car and grabbed the phone. The victim grabbed for the phone and the suspect hit him in the cheekbone.
The victim drove off and called 911. The suspect is described as an Hispanic male in his mid 30s.
Bartender hit in face by patron
A bartender at a bar in the Highlands was punched in the face just after midnight Feb. 17 by a female patron after he refused to serve alcohol to one of her friends.
The 33-year-old Auburn man told officers he argued and exchanged curse words with the 22-year-old Kirkland woman after she complained that he was cutting off her friend. He turned away and the woman hit him in the face with her fist. His ear was bright red.
An officer found the woman just south of the bar on Sunset Boulevard Northeast. She indicated there was a mistake on her tab and the bartender had used a derogatory term for her female friends. She said she got into the bartender’s face but denied hitting him.
She was cited for fourth-degree assault and released.
Store employee threatened on break
An employee of the Goodwill store on Northeast Sunset Boulevard was threatened by a man who appeared drunk Feb. 18 as she took a break outside the store.
The suspect, a 36-year-old Renton man, threatened to slit her throat and called her a derogatory name when she wouldn’t give him a cigarette or sell him one for a quarter.
She called 911 and identified the man standing with a police officer at a bus stop nearby. He was surrounded by several grocery bags filled with clothing.
He was arrested for investigation of felony harassment.
