Whatcom County law enforcement agencies arrested a man on Dec. 27 who was wanted for several felonies and posed a danger to the public, according to a Bellingham Police Department report released late Sunday.
Law enforcement had been trying to arrest the 36-year-old Blaine resident for two months, after he was suspected to have burglarized a home in Blaine and assaulted the resident by strangulation. However, he had managed to evade arrest multiple times by driving extremely recklessly, rendering police pursuit too dangerous to continue, according to BPD.
The suspect had made it clear, BPD said, that “if contacted by police, he would drive without regard for the safety of others and do anything he could to get away, including driving recklessly by speeding and driving without lights at night.”
Then, early on Friday morning, a Western Washington University officer tried to stop a silver Subaru with a stolen license plate, but the driver turned off its lights in the dark and sped off through downtown toward the Sunnyland neighborhood.
Later the same day, Bellingham police responded to a burglary in progress on Lakeway Drive and determined the same man seemed culpable. He fled in the same Subaru with stolen plates and was eventually found parked with the car running at a dead-end block on Xenia Street. Officers pinned the car in to prevent the suspect from fleeing and tried to get him to safely exit the car. According to the police report, he ignored commands, so officers broke the back window of the Subaru and sprayed chemical irritant into the car to force him to get out. A search of the car yielded “realistic looking BB guns” and evidence of drug use, possibly fentanyl.
The suspect threatened the police and said racist and homophobic remarks while being apprehended, according to the report.
The man, who had several warrants out for his arrest, is in jail with bail set at more than $330,000. Several felony charges are being prepared.
It is Cascadia Daily News policy not to name criminal suspects before formal charges have been made unless it is in the public interest to share their identity. Learn more about CDN’s crime reporting policy here.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
