Dori: Local crimes spike due to more repeat offenders

Crime is absolutely out of control locally – and it’s playing out in the lives of Dori Monson Show listeners.

There have been 14 shootings in Tacoma alone in the past three days. In King County: 29 shootings in the first 28 days of this month.

We are turning into Chicago here and it is by design. Leaders and judges are afraid to prosecute based on actions because they fear it means prosecuting a disproportionate number of Black and brown people. They want to continue to unleash the kind of chaos that has been tearing apart our region.

Law enforcement sources for this show tell me we need to get some people in leadership who have the guts to do something about this. Here is what one source wrote me:

“Here we go again. I’m pretty sure you heard about the double carjacking a couple of weeks ago in North Bend. Those two suspects were identified. They are also suspects in all of the ongoing car prowls at the local trailheads. After they were identified, they were under surveillance.

“At one point, they got spooked and pulled over and the two suspects walked through an elementary school. Both suspects ended up getting picked up by another car. The detectives found two handguns on the school property. Both suspects ended up getting arrested and booked into the King County Jail. Detective Jeffry Christensen from the Bellevue Police Department has filed 12 felony charges on the two defendants. Both of them are convicted felons.”

My source is frustrated because prosecutors were unable to file gun enhancement charges against these two perps. This, according to the source, is because the Washington State Crime Lab considers is “only” a violation of the federal firearms act.

“Why do we need more gun laws when they will charge these two who were armed during a violent carjacking?” my law enforcement source wants to know. “Where is (King County Prosecutor) Dan Satterberg or (Washington State Attorney General) Bob Ferguson?”

While the two await charges, my source recommended, consider this: both suspects are 24 years old with a long history of crime. One is connected to a Puyallup bank robbery and an armed robbery at a Renton jewelry store.

“They have caused at least $150,000 or more in damages and paid out deductibles. We estimate they charged at least $125,000 or more on pre-paid VISA cards,” my source continued. “Once they get your credit cards, they run to a self-checkout and start running the stolen credit cards through.”

And, at age 24, the suspects in this case are old-timers.

Consider the 17-year-old released with an ankle monitoring device recently by King County Superior Court Judge Nelson Lee. Despite prosecutors’ objections, Lee chose not to keep the teen in jail until his trial. This, as KIRO Newsradio Hanna Scott reported, comes after the boy was arrested in Burien after allegedly shooting at deputies after ramming two patrol cars with his vehicle – a stolen car.

According to documents, this same teen shot and killed someone last year during a road rage incident in a case that was dismissed as “self-defense.” Credit this one to King County Superior Court Judge Nelson Lee.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Lee was connected to the case earlier this year involving two teens who were released on home monitoring by King County Superior Court Judge Averil Rothrock after a violent Federal Way pawn shop robbery. Charging documents show the teens they released are the two who cut off their ankle devices after their court appearance and later robbed a Tacoma weed shop – killing an innocent Jordan Brown during the crime.

I agree with my law enforcement source: we do need to get some people in leadership who have the guts to do something about this.

If these kinds of crimes haven’t caught up to you yet, consider yourself lucky.

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.