PACIFIC — A 41-year-old Quilcene man reportedly was recovering in Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center after being shot several times by police to end a chase that involved a stolen police cruiser and a pickup truck stolen from Port Townsend’s Edensaw Woods.
King County sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Cindi West said the man was from Quilcene but would not identify him because he has not been charged with a crime.
West said Saturday the man was in critical condition but is expected to survive.
The King County Sheriff’s Office gave the following account:
The chase began at about 10:40 p.m. Thursday, when a police officer in Pacific, a city southeast of Federal Way, tried to stop a truck that had been reported stolen from Edensaw on Wednesday.
Instead, the driver of the truck took off, leading the officer in a pursuit through a residential neighborhood.
Edensaw is a well-known Port Townsend supplier and millworker of high-end marine plywood, domestic and exotic lumber, wood veneer and other fine woods.
The man bounced over sidewalks and lawns until he stopped in the driveway of a house in the 200 block of Sunset Drive.
Then he got out and ran.
The officer pursued him on foot.
The Quilcene man circled around, running around a house, and climbed into the patrol car that the officer had left running.
The officer caught up to him, and they struggled before the man drove away in the officer’s car.
The officer fired several shots, West said, and hit the driver, who crashed the patrol car into a Hummer that was parked in front of a nearby house, shoving it back into the house’s garage.
The officer was not injured.
Edensaw owner Jim Ferris said he noticed his company’s Toyota T100 truck was missing Wednesday and reported it stolen to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
He said the truck was filled with material for a client.
Although Ferris had seen media reports of the chase, he had not been contacted by police about his truck as of Saturday.
Capt. Ben Stamper with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the truck in the chase was the same one taken from Edensaw, 211 Seton Road, Port Townsend.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.