abaddon
September 10, 2003, 12:48 AM
So much to comment on I'm not sure what to say. Just read.
http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3879696p-3903024c.html
__ Bail bondsman nabs wrong guy, lands in jail
STACEY MULICK; The News Tribune
A Tacoma bail bondsman swung into action Monday afternoon after spotting a dangerous bail jumper.
He grabbed a shotgun, hurried to a car waiting in the Starbucks Coffee drive-through line on South 72nd Street and ordered the man out at gunpoint.
But once Tacoma police had sorted out the frenzied scene, it was the bail bondsman who ended up in jail after apprehending an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity.
"(The man) was not the bad guy, which he'd said all along," Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said.
Coffee customers thought it was a car-jacking or a kidnapping.
"We didn't really know what was going on," said one woman who witnessed the incident. "It was pretty scary."
The bondsman spotted a white Honda waiting in the line at the often-crowded South End Starbucks coffeehouse shortly after 1:30 p.m. He believed he recognized the male passenger, whom he considered armed and dangerous, Mattheis said.
The bail bondsman got out of his car and hurried to the Honda. He held a shotgun to the face of the woman behind the wheel. An infant was buckled in the back seat.
The bondsman yelled at the woman not to go anywhere. He ordered the man out of the car and handcuffed him.
"I heard someone say, 'Get out of the car,'" said one witness, who didn't want her name used. "I heard it again quite louder."
The bondsman hurried the man into his car and drove off. Meanwhile, the witness and her co-workers darted across South 72nd Street and called police from a nearby pay phone.
Other panicked customers also called 911.
"We were getting lots of calls from citizens," Mattheis said. "They thought it was a kidnapping that took place in the parking lot."
One witness got into a car and followed the bail bondsman, keeping police dispatchers informed of his route. Officers stopped the bondsman's car at South 11th and Court A streets, near another Starbucks, Mattheis said.
Officers took the man the bondsman had captured to police headquarters to verify his identity. Fingerprints revealed he was not the offender the bail bondsman thought he was, and he was released, Mattheis said.
The bail bondsman, on the other hand, was arrested and booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and two counts of assault, Mattheis said.
The News Tribune is not identifying him because he has not been charged with a crime.
Neither the woman nor the infant was injured.
"It was like a three-minute chaos of panic," one witness to the original incident said. "I'm just glad they caught him."
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@mail.tribnet.com
http://www.tribnet.com/news/story/3879696p-3903024c.html
__ Bail bondsman nabs wrong guy, lands in jail
STACEY MULICK; The News Tribune
A Tacoma bail bondsman swung into action Monday afternoon after spotting a dangerous bail jumper.
He grabbed a shotgun, hurried to a car waiting in the Starbucks Coffee drive-through line on South 72nd Street and ordered the man out at gunpoint.
But once Tacoma police had sorted out the frenzied scene, it was the bail bondsman who ended up in jail after apprehending an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity.
"(The man) was not the bad guy, which he'd said all along," Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said.
Coffee customers thought it was a car-jacking or a kidnapping.
"We didn't really know what was going on," said one woman who witnessed the incident. "It was pretty scary."
The bondsman spotted a white Honda waiting in the line at the often-crowded South End Starbucks coffeehouse shortly after 1:30 p.m. He believed he recognized the male passenger, whom he considered armed and dangerous, Mattheis said.
The bail bondsman got out of his car and hurried to the Honda. He held a shotgun to the face of the woman behind the wheel. An infant was buckled in the back seat.
The bondsman yelled at the woman not to go anywhere. He ordered the man out of the car and handcuffed him.
"I heard someone say, 'Get out of the car,'" said one witness, who didn't want her name used. "I heard it again quite louder."
The bondsman hurried the man into his car and drove off. Meanwhile, the witness and her co-workers darted across South 72nd Street and called police from a nearby pay phone.
Other panicked customers also called 911.
"We were getting lots of calls from citizens," Mattheis said. "They thought it was a kidnapping that took place in the parking lot."
One witness got into a car and followed the bail bondsman, keeping police dispatchers informed of his route. Officers stopped the bondsman's car at South 11th and Court A streets, near another Starbucks, Mattheis said.
Officers took the man the bondsman had captured to police headquarters to verify his identity. Fingerprints revealed he was not the offender the bail bondsman thought he was, and he was released, Mattheis said.
The bail bondsman, on the other hand, was arrested and booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and two counts of assault, Mattheis said.
The News Tribune is not identifying him because he has not been charged with a crime.
Neither the woman nor the infant was injured.
"It was like a three-minute chaos of panic," one witness to the original incident said. "I'm just glad they caught him."
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@mail.tribnet.com