Archive
OFFICER DOWN FEDERAL WAY WASHINGTON
Federal Way Police Department
Washington
End of Watch: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Biographical Info
Age: 34
Tour of Duty: 8 years
Badge Number: Not available
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Heart attack
Date of Incident: Sunday, March 21, 2010
Weapon Used: Not available
Suspect Info: Not available
Officer Brian Walsh suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after responding to a an officer-involved shooting on 26th Avenue, SW.
After the initial response and search for suspects, Officer Walsh was posted on the perimeter to secure the shooting scene. At approximately 6:45 am he was found collapsed in his patrol car.
Officer Walsh was a service member of the Air National Guard and had served in law enforcement for eight years. He is survived by his expectant wife and two children.
Agency Contact Information
Federal Way Police Department
33530 1st Way South
PO Box 9718
Federal Way, WA 98063
Phone: (253) 661-4000
Please contact the Federal Way Police Department for funeral arrangements or for survivor benefit fund information.
Mall security officer shoots at shoplifter www.privateofficer.com
Tulsa Police say that a man was leaving Woodland Hills Mall after taking clothes from a store around 6:30 p.m. A security guard followed him to the parking lot as the man tried to get into an SUV and leave.
Cpt. Rick Helberg said the security guard was hanging out of the car as the suspect began to drive away. The guard reached for his gun and fired a shot that hit the truck. He eventually freed himself from the SUV. 8
The suspect hit cars in the mall lot as he left the property. But, his run would soon end.
An officer spotted the man’s vehicle near 51st and Memorial. He was taken into custody without incident.
The 42-year-old suspect was sprayed with a marking dye when he left the store he allegedly stole from. The bright orange ink was all over the man’s front, Helberg said.
He could face shoplifting and endangerment charges. Police found several garments in the back of his SUV.
The security guard suffered bumps and bruises but no serious injuries.
Substitute teacher arrested for urinating in classroom www.privateofficer.com
Delano police were called to Cesar Chavez High School around 10:30 a.m. after there was a reported incident of indecent exposure.
The Delano Police Department has arrested 59-year-old Matthew Davis, who is a substitute teacher.
Some students reported seeing Davis urinate in the classroom, though the DPD has not confirmed these allegations.
Sgt. Jerry Nicholson with the DPD said there was probable cause to arrest Davis, whose bail was set at $650,000 according to the sheriff’s booking information.
Davis has been charged with 15 felonies: 5 felony counts of indecent exposure, 5 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts and 5 felony counts of child endangerment.
District officials said they’re praising students and teachers for how they handled the situation.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Davis is scheduled to appear in court in Delano Wednesday morning.
DUI driver nabbed after high speed chase www.privateofficer.com
Wade Alen McElroy, 33, was arrested following multiple collisions near Second and Grand avenues.
Officers said he ran on foot from the crash site and hid while police stopped another pickup, which looked like the one McElroy was driving.
Security officers helped police locate McElroy, who was hiding behind a transformer station in the 800 block of Second Avenue.
McElroy was charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, third or subsequent offense. He was previously arrested on charges of OWI, third or subsequent offense, on March 18, 2008, and July 12, 2008, according to jail records.
In addition, police charged him Monday night with eluding, reckless driving, failure to give aid and information at an accident scene, interference with official acts, probation violation, no driver’s license and failure to have insurance.
Police said McElroy was driving his girlfriend’s car. Shannon Sandberg was charged with allowing an unauthorized person to drive after officers found the following text message on McElroy’s cell phone: “You promised to not drink when you are driving the truck.” The message was sent Saturday.
Officer Eric Hartman said in a report that he started following McElroy about 10 p.m., when he clocked him traveling 44 mph in a 30 mph zone in the 4300 block of University Avenue.
The officer activated his lights and siren as the driver sped away from him.
The report says McElroy’s truck fishtailed during the chase. “The vehicle recovered and continued to accelerate very hard. By the time we reached the area around 28th and Grand eastbound I looked at my speedometer and we were going in excess of 100 mph. However, the vehicle was still pulling away from me and I was starting to lose sight of it.”
Hartman said the speeding truck began traveling the wrong way down Grand Avenue into downtown Des Moines.
“I had to back off because I could not see traffic signals … ” the officer said in the report. Other officers headed into the area to look for the fleeing driver.
“Officers indicated (by radio) that the truck had collided with a vehicle at Second and Grand Avenue and indicated they were taking one into custody,” the report said. “However, it turned out that a nearly identical truck was in the area and officers had stopped the wrong vehicle and failed to see the truck had veered off the road in the 100 block of Grand Avenue and crashed. When officers found the truck, the driver had fled the scene.”
Witnesses near the Downtown YMCA directed officers north where they eventually found a pair of security officers who told them a man was hiding behind a transformer.
Police said McElroy refused to remove his hands from his sweatshirt, so an officer gave him a squirt of pepper spray and took him to the ground. He was handcuffed without further incident.
School security officer in critical condition after beating www.privateofficer.com
A 59-year-old security guard who was assaulted at a San Jose high school over the weekend remains in critical condition at a local hospital, police Officer Jose Garcia said Monday.
The man, whose name is being withheld as a safety precaution, was assaulted about 9:15 p.m. Saturday by three to four males at Herman Intermediate School at 5955 Blossom Ave., Garcia said.
He is a resident of Campbell but works as a guard for a school-contracted security company.
Garcia said the man was on routine patrol when he called the company’s dispatch using his cell phone to say that he was going to check on a group of people at the campus. A dispatcher called police around 9:30 p.m. after calls to the man’s cell phone went ignored.
Officers responded and found the man suffering from life-threatening injuries in the playground area of the school, Garcia said.
He was taken to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition.
Garcia said three or four male suspects were involved in the assault.
Police are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspects.
Anyone with information is requested to call Detective Cebrian at (408) 277-4781.
Mall security aids in capture of burglary suspect www.privateofficer.com
A man is accused of stealing cash and more than $100,000 worth of jewelry from the Piercing Pagoda at the Town Center at Boca Raton.
Greg Zamort was arrested Sunday morning on charges of burglary, grand theft, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.
Boca Raton police said a mall security guard saw Zamort crouching down inside the Piercing Pagoda and alerted police.
A police officer confronted Zamort and chased him through the mall. Police said Zamort stopped when he approached a corridor with locked exterior doors, at which time he threatened the officer with a screwdriver.
Police said Zamort dropped the screwdriver but resisted when the officer tried to handcuff him and take him into custody.
FBI charges teacher with sex crimes against student www.privateofficer.com
A federal complaint by an agent with the FBI Crimes Against Children Task Force charges 44-year-old Stanley Wren Vickers with taking a 14-year-old boy across state lines and having sex with him.
Vickers is accused of sex acts with the youth in St. Louis; Paducah, Ky; and various places in Tennessee in 2003.
The affidavit, posted on WCMT radio’s Web site, states Vickers had been a soccer coach at Martin Middle School and the boy was on the soccer team. When the youth went to Westview High School, Vickers transferred there.
The affidavit stated Vickers also operated a disc jockey business and paid the boy to help him at events.
Man jailed after violent attack on airport employees, police www.privateofficer.com
Sporting a mohawk haircut and a black eye, 43-year-old Michael Jones stood before a Miami-Dade judge Monday afternoon and said, “I don’t need a lawyer.” He might want to reconsider.
Police have charged Jones in a violent rampage at Miami International Airport Monday morning where he allegedly attacked two airport employees and then took on a contingent of police officers. When it was over, Jones, an airport worker and two cops were injured.
“It doesn’t seem that there was anything to provoke the attack,” said Miami-Dade detective Aida Fina-Milian.
According to an arrest report, Jones, of Export, PA first attacked airport plumber Medaro Recarte “for unknown reasons.” The report says Jones threw a luggage cart at Recarte, missed, then punched him in the face. Police say Jones then went after another worker, James Barlo, with “clinched fists.” Barlo ran to safety and police were called.
The first officer to arrive ordered Jones to lie down, but the report says he charged at the officer, who tasered him without effect. The officer was punched in the face and suffered a bloody nose. A second officer arrived and joined the fray, injuring his knee.
Police say it took five cops and five taserings to finally bring the violent suspect under control. Arriving paramedics applied pressure to staunch the bleeding from a gash on Jones’ head. The officer who was punched in the face dabbed a handkerchief at his bloody nose, and the other officer who was hurt sat on a baggage carousel, holding an ice pack to his knee.
At a court appearance Monday afternoon Jones’ wife told the judge her husband suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental illness that can cause large mood swings and bizarre behavior when left unchecked. Jones’ wife told the judge her husband has not been taking his medication.
She said he had been on a trip to Costa Rica and was returning to their home near Pittsburgh. She said a friend that Jones was visiting in Costa Rica called her and said he was worried about her husband’s behavior, and concerned he might not be “able to handle the layover” in Miami. She flew to Miami to meet his plane, but was unable to find her husband. She learned later that he had been arrested.
Jones told the judge he is a movie producer who makes up to $8,000 a week. His wife said her husband was delusional. “He’s not a movie producer, he doesn’t make $8,000 a week,” she said. “We are broke. Our checking account is overdrawn.”
The wife said Jones was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2007, and that when he takes his prescribed drugs he is fine.
“He’s not a violent person. In his normal state of mind this would never have happened,” the wife said.
Jones was ordered held on $12,500 bond. The charges against him include battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest with violence, and two counts of assaulting the airport employees.
Erlanger Hospital may outsource security www.privateofficer.com
Jim Brexler, CEO, said no decision has been made, but he said hospital officials expect to have a recommendation in the near future.
He said one possibility is to issue a request for proposals (RFP) on providing the service.
Mr. Brexler said the hospital has been looking into whether an outside firm could best provide training and other specialized components of a police force.
He said steps would be taken to seek to have current employees to gain positions with the new firm – if that is the direction that is decided.
Mr. Brexler said Erlanger was already taking a look at contracting security when a patient was tasered last December and died a short time later. A police report said the officer acted according to hospital procedure and that the tasing was not a significant factor in the patient’s death.
Mr. Brexler said the incident did prompt Erlanger officials to take a renewed look at how it trains and supervises its officers.
Erlanger currently has 30-35 personnel in its police force.
Dismembered body found in Atlanta www.privateofficer.com
Source: AJC.com
Police are trying to determine whether a dismembered body found Monday belongs to one of several missing Atlanta women.
Atlanta Police Maj. Keith Meadows confirmed at least two matches of missing women fitting the description of the body.
While Meadows told WSB Radio early Monday evening that those two women’s ages were in the late 20s and early 30s, he later said the number of matches had grown.
“We have more than that now,” Meadows told the AJC. “We have to go through the elimination process.”
Cadaver dogs were searching the immediate area after the woman’s body was discovered Monday afternoon.
Police discontinued the search around 6:30 p.m., but will return Tuesday to search through vacant homes in the area, Meadows said.
A woman cutting through a vacant lot at the corner of Elm Street and Joseph E. Boone Boulevard stumbled upon the naked female corpse that was missing its head and hands and wrapped in a comforter, Meadows said.
An autopsy will be performed on the body Tuesday morning by the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office, but a spokesperson for the office said identification will be difficult without the head to gather dental records, or the hands pull finger prints.
The body was discovered at around 2:25 p.m. in the west Atlanta neighborhood known as the Bluffs.
“She didn’t think it was a body at first,” said Jamilah Garth, whose friend discovered the body. “So she went up to it and kicked it, and she said she just started screaming.”
Investigators believe the woman was murdered elsewhere and dumped at the lot, Meadows told the AJC.
“It appears the body has been here a couple of days,” he said. “It’s never easy to work cases like this.”
Garth said her friend had just left Garth’s apartment when the body was found. The friend ran back to Garth’s apartment after her discovery.
“The head … the hands were just cut off,” Garth said, repeating what she said her friend described. “Her arms … they were laying there.”
Mesa nightclub security officers injured www.privateofficer.com
Police responded to an assault call about 12:15 a.m. at a bar in the Mesa Riverview shopping area. The name of the establishment was not disclosed.
The victim, Abraham Chaparro, told police that he was making his way through the crowd when he asked the suspect to move.
The attacker pushed Chaparro and hit him in the back of the head with a beer bottle.
Chaparro, who sustained a cut under his left eye, was able to restrain the attacker until a friend of the suspect began choking him from behind, police said. A second security guard approached and was struck in the face with a beer bottle.
The attacker was identified as Sang Luu, 27, of Mesa. His friend was identified as Lane Couch, age unavailable.
Luu admitted to attacking the guards but said he didn’t know they were security officers, police said.
Neither victim required medical attention.
Luu and Couch were booked on charges of aggravated assault.
