Bodycam video shows man accused of attacking WSP lieutenant, stealing cruiser on I-5 in Seattle
Jan 12, 2026, 4:15 PM
Newly released bodycam video shows Washington State Patrol (WSP) troopers spending several minutes trying to coax a man off I-5 near Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood on Christmas Day before he bolted into traffic, allegedly threw a lieutenant to the pavement, and sped away in her patrol SUV.
The suspect, identified in court records as 24‑year‑old Alexander Eugene Smith, is now charged in King County with second‑degree robbery and attempting to elude a police vehicle.
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‘We just want to get you somewhere safe’
The videos, obtained by KIRO Newsradio through a public records request, begin with a trooper contacting Smith in the live lanes of I‑5 near N.E. 85th Street in Seattle.
Smith is walking in the center of the freeway. Cars are passing at freeway speeds.
“We just want to get you off the freeway,” a trooper told him, explaining that walking on I-5 is trespassing under Washington law. The trooper offers multiple options. A ride off the freeway. A slow escort on the shoulder to the next exit. Even basic comforts.
Trying to coerce Smith into riding in the patrol car, the trooper said, “We can take you anywhere you want,” off the freeway, promising something warm to drink and a safe place to go.
But Smith resisted, saying he just wanted to walk. He told troopers his home is in Stanwood, roughly 50 miles north of Seattle. Troopers explained they cannot drive him that far, but they can get him to transit and out of harm’s way.
After several minutes, they convinced him to move out of the center lanes. Troopers stopped traffic, walked him across to the right shoulder, and started guiding him toward the Northgate exit.
Talk of floods, the National Guard, and a long walk to Stanwood
Once traffic was stopped, Smith sat on a freeway guardrail and talked with a trooper about flooding in Snohomish and Skagit counties and the National Guard response. He asked if people “up north” are safe.
The trooper answered his questions and kept returning to the same point. They cannot let him stay on I‑5.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to give you a ride, bro? Because that exit is hella far. Like, it’s going to be a long‑a** walk,” the trooper said.
“Please, just let me walk,” Smith insisted.
Troopers eventually guided him off the mainline and onto the Northgate off‑ramp. There, traffic is again slowed. Smith paused on the shoulder guardrail. Troopers offered him a blanket. He repeatedly told them they are being “too nice” and that he does not deserve it.
One trooper tried to reassure him.
“You’re not a burden,” the trooper said. “We lost one of our troopers like this, so that’s why we don’t want to … you know what I mean. Including you.”
The trooper’s reference to “losing one of our troopers like this” appears to be about WSP Trooper Tara Marysa‑Guting, who was killed in the line of duty on December 19, 2025 when she was struck by a driver while she was out of her vehicle responding to a crash on SR 509 in Tacoma.
WSP lieutenant offers a ride all the way to Stanwood
A WSP lieutenant arrived and joined the conversation. In the video, the trooper introduced Smith to her as their “boss’s boss.”
The lieutenant told Smith she cannot allow him to remain on the freeway, especially in dark clothing on wet pavement. She offered him several options.
She proposed taking him to the nearby Northgate light rail station, which can carry him north toward Lynnwood and closer to Stanwood. She also offered to drive him to another station farther north along I-5.
Smith told them he does not have money for a train ticket. Both the lieutenant and the trooper told him they would pay his fare.
They repeated that he does not have to be handcuffed. They promised to open the car door once they reached the station. They told him the car is warm and the station is dry.
Smith continued to hesitate, saying he feels like “a piece of” garbage and that he does not deserve their kindness. He appeared tired and conflicted. Troopers said they are running out of options.
Finally, they spelled it out. Either he gets into a patrol car, or he walks completely off the freeway. Smith chose to keep walking, and they continued down the off‑ramp shoulder.
The situation changes in an instant
On the trooper’s body camera, Smith suddenly ran into live traffic.
“Get off the road, please, please!” the trooper yelled, his voice rising as he pleaded, “Please, bro. Please. Please.”
The trooper drew his Taser and ordered Smith to the ground. Instead, Smith scrambled across the freeway median and into the southbound lanes. The trooper turned and sprinted back to his own vehicle to give chase.
The lieutenant’s body camera showed the confrontation from the other side of the freeway. She was driving southbound when she spotted Smith, briefly rolling down her window to tell him to “get off the road” multiple times.
Smith suddenly yanked the patrol car’s door open. The video showed him throwing the lieutenant to the pavement.
“Holy s***,” she said.
Smith jumped into the driver’s seat and locked the door. The lieutenant scrambled up and pulled frantically on the door handle, yelling “No!” multiple times as Smith sped away in her cruiser.
Left on foot in the middle of I-5, the lieutenant walked through traffic to flag down a passing driver.
Over the radio, another trooper confirmed what had just happened.
“Verify. She stole a patrol car?” a dispatcher asked.
“Patrol car,” the trooper replied.
The lieutenant flagged down a passing driver and asked them to call 911. Other troopers rushed north to join the pursuit.
High-speed chase from Northgate to Lynnwood
Radio traffic captured on the bodycam audio showed troopers trying to relocate the stolen SUV as it headed north out of Seattle.
Units reported losing sight of the vehicle near Shoreline because of trees and curves. Dispatchers called out freeway cameras and exits as they tried to track the SUV’s path. Then, troopers in Snohomish County spotted the unmarked WSP vehicle.
“We’re continuing southbound. Alderwood Mall Parkway, approaching Beech Road. Speed 61 miles an hour,” one trooper called out, describing a loop through Lynnwood city streets after the stolen SUV exited the freeway near 196th Street S.W.
The patrol SUV turned onto Alderwood Mall Boulevard, then onto 44th Avenue W., then back toward southbound I‑5.
“Getting back onto southbound I‑5 right now,” a trooper reported, as speeds reached about 80 miles an hour south of Lynnwood.
Command staff authorized a Pursuit Intervention Technique, commonly known as a PIT maneuver, to spin the stolen SUV and end the chase.
“He just dodged me. Attempting again,” a pursuing trooper said before another unit reported a successful PIT.
‘Get out of the car!’: PIT maneuver and arrest
Video and audio from the scene showed the stolen patrol SUV spinning and coming to a stop near the freeway after the PIT.
“Back up, back up, back up!” a trooper yelled as several patrol vehicles boxed in the SUV with lights flashing.
Multiple troopers rushed to the driver’s side with guns drawn.
“Get out of the car! Get out of the f***ing car! Put your hands up!” they shouted.
The driver, later identified as Smith, got out. Troopers ordered him to the ground and moved in to handcuff him. A Taser was deployed during the struggle. One trooper later told a colleague he saw several Taser probes in Smith’s body, although only two made complete contact.
“You better stay still,” one trooper warned as they secured him and requested medical aid.
Within moments, Smith was in custody and seated on the ground. County deputies and medics arrived to assist.
Troopers shaken but standing
“Are you OK?” one trooper asked another at the scene.
He explained to medics that his airbag had hit him when his patrol SUV collided during the PIT maneuver.
“It felt like I got punched,” he said. “I was bleeding from my nose. I don’t feel dizzy or nauseous.”
Troopers talked through what happened. One said he initially thought the suspect was trying to kill himself when he ran into traffic on I‑5.
“He was just a pedestrian that we were just trying to get off the freeway,” WSP Trooper Abdul told another officer. “As he’s last minute about to take the exit, he just runs across traffic. And then he ends up stealing a patrol car.”
Another trooper reminded him that cars are replaceable.
“You get to go home,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”
Prosecutors say Smith admitted using meth before incident
In charging documents filed in King County Superior Court, prosecutors said Smith told investigators he had smoked methamphetamine before the incident on December 25, 2025.
He was charged with second‑degree robbery for allegedly forcibly taking the lieutenant’s patrol SUV, and with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle for the high‑speed chase that followed.
WSP has not publicly detailed any injuries to the lieutenant or to Smith. Body camera audio suggested Smith was evaluated by medics at the scene after being tased and arrested.
The videos obtained by KIRO Newsradio showed a prolonged effort to avoid that outcome. Troopers offered Smith a ride, a blanket, a paid‑for train ticket, and even a drive all the way to Stanwood if he would simply get off the freeway.
“This is our job. You’re not a burden,” a trooper told him at one point on the Northgate off‑ramp. “We lost one of our troopers like this. That’s why we don’t want to. You know what I mean. Including you.”
Within minutes, the encounter had turned from a welfare check into a violent carjacking, a multi‑agency pursuit through two counties, and a felony case that will now play out in a Seattle courtroom.
Smith remains in custody as the case moves forward.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
