A 42-year-old convicted sex offender has been identified as the suspect in a Friday night incident that led to the stabbing of a Thurston County Sheriff’s deputy and a shooting.
The suspect has a prior conviction for rape that dates to 1995, according to Pierce County Superior Court records. He is classified as a Level 3 offender, and a high risk to re-offend. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office lists the man as a transient.
The suspect was labeled as high risk after a 1995 conviction of assault and rape where he forced his way into a stranger’s home at gunpoint, tying the woman up and sexually assaulting her. He choked her with a cord before the victim was able to escape to a neighbor’s house.
Records show he also has two prior felony convictions for failing to register as a sex offender in 2014 and 2016. After being released in 2018, he cut off his GPS tracker and went into hiding. The tracker was later found discarded in a garbage bin. Five days later, the suspect was found in Enumclaw and taken into custody.
The deputy and the suspect were both hospitalized following the incident in Yelm.
According to police, the deputy was sent to a home in the 16900 block of Holly Street Southeast following a 911 call that a man there was making threats and refusing to leave.
Police say that within two minutes of the deputy’s arrival, she had radioed in that she had discharged her weapon and had been stabbed.
Backup from Yelm police and additional deputies arrived on scene where they began to render aid to both the suspect and the deputy.
Alyssia Howard lives in the neighborhood where the incident occurred and was at home with her family Friday evening. She told The News Tribune that it was then that she heard a series of gunshots.
“I heard what sounded like four gunshots,” Howard said. “We were sitting around in our living room playing card games and our windows were open. I heard four ‘boom, boom, boom, boom.’ I told my husband, ‘wow, that really sounded like gunshots.’ We weren’t really certain until about thirty to sixty seconds later we saw a bunch of cops flying through here.”
Howard also caught footage of the lone deputy responding to the scene, followed by a larger police response shortly after responding to the calls for help.
“We’re all okay,” Howard said. “We definitely feel really okay, just really sad that the situation happened the way it did.”
The deputy, who is in her mid-30s, was transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia where police say she was undergoing surgery but is in stable condition.
According to KOMO, the suspect was taken by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The suspect is said to be in serious condition.
Sgt. Darren Moss Jr. of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said the suspect had a warrant out that was issued early in the day Friday before the incident occurred.
“He has a felony warrant for escaping community custody, failure to register as a sex offender out of Tacoma,” Moss said. “DOC issued the warrant at 4 o’clock, like 4:30 yesterday.”
Moss said the warrant would have been issued by his probation officer and couldn’t provide exact information on the reasoning being it. Prior to yesterday, Moss said the suspect was not on their radar for any reason.
“I don’t have any reports that we were looking for him for anything. Obviously, he probably absconded or didn’t register or check in with his probation officer,” Moss said.
Moss said he didn’t know if the suspect had any type of electronic tracking monitor or bracelet on his most recent release.
“That’s dependent upon the courts. The courts decide what happens there, the sheriff’s department doesn’t say ‘well we want this guy to have a bracelet.’ That’s going to be up to the judge,” Moss said.
All that Moss said the department is in charge of is ensuring that he is getting registered.
“He has an obligation to register. When the guy decides to not register, we issue a warrant so the next time we find him or talk to him, he goes back to jail and they did issue a warrant for him yesterday,” Moss said. “Because he’s a Level 3, he’s considered to be more of a risk to the public.”
Mason County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jason Dracobly, whose department is leading the investigation into the incident, said he doesn’t know if there is anything connecting the caller and the suspect.
“I don’t know if there is a relationship,” Dracobly said. “Why did he end up there? I have no clue. At this moment, I have no clue.”
Dracobly said he didn’t consider the incident as being connected with domestic violence, though interviews and information gathering is still taking place.
“No, I mean if it was a DV, there would have been a relationship,” Dracobly said. “We’re still investigating.”
The incident will continue to be investigated by the Region 3 Critical Incident Investigation Team.
