Don attempts a citizen’s arrest on a Seattle cop

Don may have a blue light in his heart, but he’s unhappy with one cop and is planning to report him to Seattle Police Chief John Diaz.

KIRO Radio host and spin class instructor Don O’Neill woke up Wednesday morning with a good feeling. Things were looking up as he drove to his 5:45 a.m. spin class.

He took the James exit off I-5 and began following an AID car. He could see inside – the medics were working on someone. Even though their lights and sirens weren’t going, he knew that if they reached a red light they might flip the switch to get through the intersection, and to the hospital, faster.

Don was right. But traveling down a three-lane, one way road, he didn’t have time to pull all the way over to the right. He stopped where he was, in the left lane and the ambulance cruised unexpectedly through the intersection.

“The next thing I know – I’ve got a guy screaming at me.” Don didn’t have the window of his Mercedes down, but could tell, this guy had a beef with where Don had stopped.

The man yelled, trying to explain to Don that he had cut him off as he was preparing to turn left from the one way street.

It was a serious case of road rage. “I can’t believe [this guy’s] lighting me up like the 4th of July!”

Don stopped, and the other vehicle stopped too. “He tells me to stay right there and he’s going to take a left turn from the middle lane in a civilian car.”

The traffic violation was out of line because it wasn’t just any driver. Don had identified the man as a cop in uniform, driving a civilian car.

As the cop makes the turn, Don knows it’s time to take the law into his own hands. With no lights and sirens of his own, he turns on his hazard lights and follows the officer attempting to pull him over to make a citizen’s arrest.

Listening to Don’s tale of morning road rage, Ron tells him that the cop was probably on duty. Because the officer gave Don a verbal command, Ron said he should have obeyed and let it go.

As for the citizen’s arrest Don would have liked to perform, Ron accused him of having impure motives. “You wanted to verbally wrap him around a telephone pole.”

Don’s citizen arrest didn’t work out the way he’d hoped. After the cop made his left turn, nearly wrecking Don’s car, he sped away. Don did take down a vehicle description, a description of the driver, and the license plate number.

Even though the rest of the Ron & Don Show are pleading for Don to just let it go – Chief Diaz may be getting a call soon about one of his officer’s roadside behavior.