The Crime Blotter: ATF and Tacoma police arrest alleged repeat fentanyl dealer at Econo Lodge

Wednesday night, Tacoma Police Department officers assisted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in a joint operation to serve a high-risk federal search warrant on two units at the Econo Lodge on S Hosmer Street.

South Hosmer Street has become a center of gun violence, human trafficking, and drugs in recent years, with five homicides reported in the area since the beginning of the year.

A 23-year-old man was at the location and arrested for possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl. While executing the search warrant, officers recovered three firearms, body armor, and substances believed to be fentanyl in the suspect’s hotel room.

The suspect has been arrested three times between July and August 2022, each time for possession of an unregistered firearm or distribution of quantities of fentanyl. 

A second suspect was located and arrested for an unrelated robbery, also at the Econo Lodge. Officers say three rooms at the Econo Lodge were boarded up.

The next day, Tacoma Police Community Liaison Officers, along with multiple community partners specializing in crisis response, housing, and addiction services, reached out to the occupants of several rooms in the Econo Lodge.

Services were offered to community members who were contacted. All remaining rooms were boarded up except for five with lawful tenancies.

Multiple cars, guns, cash, and drugs seized after threatening man in North Seattle parking lot 

Early morning Tuesday, a caller reported a man in a parking lot in North Seattle, pointing a handgun at him. The caller described to Seattle Police dispatch the suspect vehicle and the location where it was last seen.

Upon arriving, officers found four subjects standing around four parked cars, and officers said one matched the suspect vehicle description. Police detained all four subjects with probable cause for the incident.

Firearms were visible in two vehicles as well as a large amount of cash. None of the subjects would admit to possessing any of the vehicles or the items within, and, without enough evidence to charge them, they were released.

Officers searched the vehicles, impounded them with four firearms, and recovered 100 oxycodone pills, possibly containing fentanyl, and $2,880 in cash was placed into evidence.

All four vehicles were towed, three vehicles for processing and the other due to the fact it was left running in a private lot.

One vehicle matched the description of a suspect vehicle speeding away from a drive-by shooting and had a bullet hole in the left rear quarter panel.

Seattle man attempts to burn his apartment down

Early Tuesday morning, Seattle Police Officers responded to a request by the Seattle Fire Department for an apartment fire.

Officers say a suspect had set various items on fire three different times throughout the night in his apartment. The third time, SFD had to force entry into the apartment, ignoring the suspect’s request not to enter, and put out a pile of burning debris.

The sprinkler system flooded the apartment and the adjacent hallway.

Police say the suspect’s actions impacted over a hundred tenants. The suspect was booked for first-degree arson.

One injured, one arrested in Seattle stabbing

Police arrested a man in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood after another man was stabbed Thursday night.

At about 10:45 p.m., police were dispatched to the 1700 block of Bellevue Avenue for reports of a stabbing. Arriving officers found a 42-year-old man with multiple stab wounds and began first aid.

Seattle Fire Department medics arrived and took over the victim’s care. He was stable when he was eventually taken to Harborview Medical Center.

Witnesses told officers the victim got into a physical fight with a man and woman, and the man stabbed the victim. The couple was reported to have fled into a nearby apartment building and refused to come out.

Police surrounded the unit. As officers prepared to serve a warrant at the apartment, the man came out and surrendered to officers.

Officers checked the unit, but the woman was not inside.

Police booked the man into the King County Jail on assault.

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