In a notable incident at Aspen Creek Apartments in Puyallup, residents were rattled early morning last Wednesday when they spotted a man, who was visibly distraught, wandering the premises with a firearm, a situation that escalated as he neared a local daycare, prompting multiple calls to the authorities. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, based upon the distress calls they received, subsequently dispatched deputies and not one, but two of their K9 units to the scene, according to a detailed account by the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office’s blog.
A man, later identified as a 36-year-old individual, already marred by felony warrants and legally barred from possessing a firearm, had fled by the time deputies arrived, initiating a pursuit where K9 Clark led the law enforcement team through the apartment complex and thereafter to a home with a small backyard house that the suspect had seemingly entered. As officers approached, K9 Clark played a pivotal role in uncovering the suspect hidden beneath a pile of clothing, which enabled his apprehension, though the gun in question was nowhere to be immediately found therefore, K9 Smokey, the department’s bomb-sniffing dog, was brought in to take a sniff for the missing gun, and success followed quickly after as Smokey detected the firearm, which turned out to be stolen, stashed away within the small house.
With the suspect now in custody, he faces a swath of charges including burglary, possession of stolen property, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance, and charges related to resisting arrest, according to the police report. The effective utilization of K9 units was highlighted in the successful resolution of the incident, with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office’s blog specifically applauding K9 Clark and K9 Smokey, mentioning that “We think K9 Clark and K9 Smokey will be celebrating with a couple of steaks this weekend.”…