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SWAT Standoff with DV Suspect Last 7 Hours

At 11:13 am on Wednesday July 19th, our deputies responded to a domestic violence incident at the 2500 block of 165th St E in Spanaway. When deputies arrived they contacted the reported party outside the residence. The woman had numerous bruises and reported being assaulted by her husband. The victim had injuries that were consistent with a felony level assault and medical aid was called to treat her.

Deputies conducted a records check and discovered the suspect had several warrants for his arrest to include a felony warrant for DV Felony Harassment, Burglary and Assault. The suspect possibly had access to firearms and when deputies attempted to contact him by phone or call him out of the house on the loudspeaker he refused to answer.

The Pierce County SWAT Team was called to the scene to assist with taking the suspect in custody.

Our Crisis Negotiators were able to get the suspect to talk to them through text messaging and attempted to get him to surrender. SWAT Team members worked on clearing the residence as best as they could from outside the residence with the use of robots but they could not see the suspect.

After 7 1/2 hours of negotiating, SWAT Team members moved into the garage to check and see if the suspect was hiding in a crawl space. Our SWAT K9, Brix, was brought into the garage and immediately started hitting on a vehicle parked in the garage.

Deputies opened the trunk and K9 Brix contacted the suspect who had been hiding inside. The SWAT Team was able to safely take the suspect into custody.

Inside the trunk with the suspect was a AR15 style BB-gun that was painted and looked like a real firearm. Detectives applied for and were granted a search warrant for the property. Detectives removed the rifle and were able to confirm it was a bb gun. In their search they located other firearm parts and ammunition inside the residence.

The 45-year-old male was transported and booked into the Pierce County Jail for Assault in the 2nd Degree, Kidnapping, Felony Harassment, and his warrants.

Awesome work by our patrol deputies, crisis negotiators, SWAT team and K9 Brix to get this suspect taken into custody!