This morning, at 11:25 a.m., a 911 caller reported that her car was just stolen at gunpoint inside Orangegate Park, near 84th St E and 46th Ave E.
The victim had an Air Tag tracking device hidden in her vehicle and kept deputies updated with the car’s location.
Deputies tracked the car to a shopping complex in Federal Way. When they attempted to stop the vehicle, it fled, hitting stop sticks the deputies had placed. Since armed robbery is a pursuable offense, deputies chased after the suspect.
The pursuit went from Federal Way to Fife, and then onto southbound I-5. A deputy performed a successful PIT maneuver near the 56th St exit. The suspect’s car, which had lost a tire because of the stop sticks, crashed on the shoulder.
The driver fled on foot but was quickly apprehended.
The suspect’s car caught on fire with a female passenger still inside. Deputies rescued the woman before the car became fully engulfed.
The fire ignited the dry grass and quickly spread to two of the deputies’ nearby patrol cars. They extinguished one of the patrol car fires but had to wait for fire personnel to extinguish the other fires. Neither of those deputies were injured.
Deputies recovered a firearm in the burned grass next to the stolen vehicle.
Both suspects were transported to the hospital for a medical evaluation due to the collision.
The driver was positively identified by the victim and will be booked into jail once he is medically cleared.