Suspected Harbor Square Athletic Club Thief Captured After Fleeing Police

A 50-year-old Lynnwood man is in custody today after leading Edmonds police on a chase, breaking into a house and threatening the female occupant.

At about 7:30 a.m., Edmonds officers responded to the report of a theft at the Harbor Square Athletic Club, said Edmonds Police Sgt. Don Anderson. One of the officers saw a vehicle leaving the area he knew had been reported stolen.

The officer also knew that the likely suspect in possession of the stolen vehicle was also the suspect in a series of ongoing thefts from the athletic club.

As the officer attempted to stop the vehicle leaving the area, the vehicle accelerated and failed to yield. When the vehicle did pull over on SR 104, just east of the Third Avenue South overpass, the driver fled on foot down an embankment.

As a police dog tracked the suspect, an Edmonds officer saw an open window with blood on the window frame of a house in the 1100 block of Second Avenue South. Another officer had observed the suspect near that home. 

Officers surrounded the scene and determined the suspect was inside with a female resident of the home. Officers were able to get the 47-year-old female Edmonds resident out of the house safely.

She did not know the suspect and reported that the suspect had threatened her upon his entry to her home. She was not injured and, once safely out of the home, officers ordered the suspect out of the downstairs portion of the house.

The suspect refused. Officer sprayed pepper gas into the house, and the suspect was taken into custody without injury.

The suspect had recently been released from the Snohomish County Jail in Everett.

He is now being returned there on several felony charges related to this Edmonds incident.