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Man digs through floor during Thurston County standoff
SWAT teams surrounded a house in Thurston County during an hours-long standoff with an assault suspect Wednesday afternoon.
TENINO, Wash. - SWAT teams surrounded a house in Thurston County during an hours-long standoff with an assault suspect Wednesday afternoon.
The backstory:
Deputies and SWAT team members surrounded a house near Highway 99 SE and Tilley Road South outside Tenino in an hours-long standoff with a man who was wanted in an assault case.
The sheriff's office said that they got a tip that the man was at the home there and when deputies arrived to try to talk to him, he refused to come out.
"Patrol surrounded the house. They were able to determine he was inside and refused to come out. Then, just because of the severity of crimes he was wanted for, I believe it was Assault 2 with a firearm and threats to kill, felony harassment, we had not recovered the firearm since the event. It automatically triggered a SWAT call out at that point in time," said Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders.
Because there were reports he might be armed, they called in the SWAT team. Sheriff Sanders says the man refused to come out of the home for about four hours.
When the SWAT team began deploying gas into the home to try to draw him out. He is accused of going into a bathroom in the home and digging a hole into a crawl space beneath the home with his hands.
Sanders says when gas was deployed in the crawl space, the man was accused of trying to escape out of an exit in the crawl space which led to the outside of the home. Though he was accused of trying to run from deputies, a K9 was sent after him, which helped to stop and detain him.
"After tossing gas inside the house, we ended up finding out he was in the crawl space, after digging a hole into the bathroom. We deployed gas to the crawl space, he tried to flee on foot, and we grabbed him," said Sanders.
Sanders says the man was treated for bites following his "contact" with the K9. There was some damage to the home after deputies entered, including to the door and windows. Sanders says the man was treated for bites following his contact with the K9.
There appeared to be some damage to the home after SWAT team members entered the house, including to the door and windows.
Sanders says that no deputies or officers were injured in the standoff.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Thurston County Sheriff's Office.
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