Lights and Sirens

The help of the public is needed to find 58-year-old Carl Wallace. He was last seen July 15th in the Burien area, and might be intending to drive to California.
Wallace suffers from Alzheimer’s and is in Seattle from Idaho for medical treatment.
The missing man has little gas, no credit or debit cards, little money and did not know how to get to the freeway from Burien.
He is likely driving a black, 1990 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, Idaho license 1AEB756.
His dog “Frankie” is with him, a brown and white border collie, weighing about 40 pounds.
Wallace is 5 foot, 7 inches tall, 180 pounds and gray hair, blue eyes, and a full beard.

He has a tattoo on his left forearm of purple roses  with “Carl + Betty”.  He is wearing a gray shirt, tan shorts, tan boat shoes and might have a purple sweater.
If anyone sees Carl Wallace they should call 911 or the King County sheriff’s office at 206-296-3311, 24 hours.

Washington State Patrol offices around the state will close  July
12 and August 6 as part of legislatively-mandated temporary layoff days due
to severe budget shortfalls.
Even though offices are closed, troopers will still be patrolling highways and 9-
1-1 operators will be answering emergency calls.

“All of our workers are essential, and all of their work is important,”  Chief
John R. Batiste said. “However, some office work is not time sensitive and can be
deferred to help the state meet its financial challenges.”

These office closures will not affect public safety. If you call 9-1-1 a trooper
will respond to your emergency.

A 64 year-old SeaTac man was injured when homemade fireworks exploded last night (July 4th), sending him to Harborview Medical Center with critical injuries.
The Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit and Bomb Disposal Unit are investigating.
Deputies were called to a house in the 2800 block of S. 138th St. shortly before 11:00 p.m.  The victim was already in route to Harborview with fire department medics.
Deputies were told a 52 year-old resident of the house built a homemade “aerial device” by tying together a bundle of sparklers.  He placed the sparklers  in a tube, and then into a concrete cinder block to brace it.  We the man lit off the “rocket’, it exploded in place, sending pieces of the concrete block in all directions.
The victim was standing about 15 to 20 feet away when the device detonated.  He was hit in the head by part of the cinder block, causing a serious head injury, which, according to the fire department, was life-threatening.
Other pieces of the block struck a nearby car, denting the door and breaking the window.  The house and the garage door were also hit.
Both men live at the residence, as does the victim’s adult daughter.  No one else was injured.
No arrests have yet been made and the investigation is continuing.

The King County Target Zero Team (TZT) is off to a running start.  On the evening of the TZT Task Force kick-off event at Boeing Field an alert TZT trooper stopped and arrested a suspected drug dealer.  Shortly after midnight the trooper stopped the suspect for improper lane travel on Interstate 5 in Seattle.  The suspect’s driver’s license turned out to be suspended.  The suspect was placed under arrest for driving with a suspended license.  During the trooper’s investigation he noticed a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.  The trooper sealed the vehicle and had it towed to the district evidence lot.  A narcotic K9 gave a positive alert on the vehicle and a warrant was granted to search it.

During the search of the vehicle, a ½ pound of marijuana, several ecstasy pills, methamphetamine and $790 in cash was seized.

TZT troopers were not only selected because of their motivation and exceptional skills in detecting impaired drivers but also for their ability to “look beyond the license plate” when conducting traffic stops.  Criminal interdiction is another component to the Target Zero goals and objectives.  Many impaired drivers are using combinations of alcohol and drugs as well as committing other crimes.

Just after 6:45 a.m. today, June 29, the Washington State Patrol received several 911 calls reporting a serious collision that had occurred westbound on I-90 at mile post 34 near North Bend.
First arriving troopers and Eastside Fire personnel reported the collision had instantly caused the deaths of two of the five occupants of the 2005 Dodge Neon.
Currently the investigation shows that the carload of family and friends had been camping in Eastern Washington for the weekend and were on their way home when driver of the vehicle, a 30-year-old man from Tacoma,
had fallen asleep at the wheel and the vehicle drifted off the left side of the interstate crossing over DOT added rumble strips and struck the guardrail and cement bridge railing without slowing down.
The collision ripped through the drivers side of the vehicle instantly killing the man and his 26-year-old wife, who was seated in the back seat behind her husband. Three other males that were also in the vehicle suffered minor to serious injuries.

According to a Washington State Patrol press release, citizens called to  report an extremely intoxicated driver in the Federal Way area yesterday. The man was eventually found and arrested, but not before also fighting with a trooper and hospital workers.

Calls started pouring in around 2:30 p.m., all reporting a green Chevrolet pickup truck driving very erratically.  The truck had also struck a vehicle on Military Road near Interstate 5 in Federal Way.  The truck entered southbound Interstate 5 from S. 200^th Street and several callers remained close to it as it exited to S. 320^th Street.  As troopers attempted to locate the truck, the driver began traveling eastbound on S. 320^th Street in an attempt to get back on northbound Interstate 5.   The highly impaired driver changed his mind and began backing up the on-ramp to northbound Interstate 5.  Troopers arrived and quickly took the driver into custody.

The driver, Juan C Lopez-Ramirez, 24, from Seattle was in possession of brass knuckles, methamphetamine and an open container of beer.  Preliminary blood tests showed him to have a BAC level of .340, more than four times the legal limit in Washington.

Lopez-Ramirez assaulted the arresting trooper and fought with several hospital workers and security guards at St. Francis Hospital.  He was booked into the King County jail for Assault third degree, driving under the influence and several misdemeanor warrants.

If you see someone driving erratically, that is an emergency and you should call 911. It’s legal to use your cell phone to report drivers who appear to be impaired.

Detectives assigned to Metro Transit arrested a 30 year-old Tacoma man Saturday night , May 28th, for the theft of several thousand dollars in fare revenue from the King County passenger ferries (water taxi).  The ferries run from downtown Seattle to Vashon Island and West Seattle.

The man was booked into the King County Jail and released on May 29 pending formal charges from the prosecutor’s office.

Detectives began their investigation on May 27th, after the Marine Division of the King County Department of Transportation believed money was disappearing from a safe at Pier 50.  Fares from passengers riding the ferry are deposited in small “vaults”, and then stored in a larger safe before the vaults are picked up by an armored car service.

Believing the thefts to be an “inside job”, detectives eventually determined a particular employee might be involved.  After further investigation, a search warrant was obtained for his Tacoma residence and seven of the stolen vaults were found.

The suspect took the vaults over a period of time and would break them open using a hammer.  He was employed by King County Dept. of Transportation since April of 2010.

The Marine Division believes 26 vaults in total were taken, worth about $330 each, and approximately $7500 in cash.

Detectives expect charges for felony theft will be filed once the case is completed and sent to the prosecutor’s office.

Washington State Patrol (WSP) detectives are seeking witnesses to a serious injury collision involving a motorcycle and a green 1995 Honda Civic.  The collision occurred Saturday evening at approximately 5:30 p.m. on northbound Interstate 5 at Martin Luther King Way in Seattle.

The cause of the collision is under investigation.  Detectives are looking for anyone who observed the Honda prior to it losing control and crossing three lanes of traffic where it was struck by the motorcycle.  The motorcycle rider sustained life threatening injuries and is being treated at Harborview Medical Center.

Anyone with information is urged to call Detective R. Haake at 425-401-7788.

A DNA hit clinched the deal in at least one unsolved rape on Vashon Island that occurred in January of this year.

On January 10th a 16 year-old girl was sleeping in the family home about 4 a.m. when a man came into the residence, apparently through an unlocked door.  He made his way to the girl’s room, raped the teen and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

As soon as the man was gone she woke her parents and the sheriff’s office was called.

The victim told deputies that, while she didn’t see the suspect’s face, she felt a beard and thought it might be an acquaintance, 27 year-old Brian Dublin, who lives on Vashon.

Based on the information from the girl, detectives contacted Dublin later that day.  He denied he had been the attacker, and provided a story as to his whereabouts the night before.

Since the identification of Dublin was tentative, there was not enough information to arrest him.

The investigation proceeded and other possible suspects were interviewed.  In addition, Dublin remained at least a “person of interest”, and his alibi was checked.  However detectives were never able to eliminate him as the perpetrator.

As part of their investigation, detectives submitted a semen sample obtained from a rape kit examination of the victim at Harborview, and sent it to the Washington State Patrol lab on January 14.

On Feb. 14 the crime lab told the sheriff’s office the sample matched a 2003 rape case on Vashon that had never been solved.  However there was no match to a specific person in their database.

During further investigation of both cases, detectives learned that Dublin was arrested in Chelan County last March.  The arrest netted a glass smoking pipe in his pocket.  The pipe obtained from eastern Washington and submitted to the lab. DNA found on the pipe was a “possible” match to the DNA taken from the rape kit.

A search warrant was obtained for Dublin’s DNA, and detectives obtained a salvia sample on April 6.

On May 21 the WSP lab told case detectives the saliva DNA from Brian Dublin matched the DNA from the rape kit from the 2010 assualt.  The Lab estimated the probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the U.S. population with a matching profile was one in 130 quadrillion.

Yesterday (May 25th), Dublin was arrested without resistance in Seattle.  He was booked into the King County Jail  and is currently held without bail.

The circumstances in the 2003 rape are similar to this case, and the investigation continues.

A local physician and surgeon was arrested yesterday for prescription forgery.  His office is at Harborview Medical Center, and he has  privileges at the University of Washington Medical Center. He was booked into the King County Jail.  He is 72 years old.
Sheriff’s detectives believe the man committed 34 counts of prescription forgery related to prescriptions he wrote in return for sexual contact with a woman who was not a patient,  The prescriptions were then filled at various local pharmacies.
The woman is 22 years old and faces charges as well.
The prescriptions were for Xanex, Oxycontin, or Percocet.  Oxycontin and Percocet are Schedule II narcotics.
The case came to the attention of the sheriff’s office after a parent called when their daughter’s insurance was used to pay for some the prescriptions.  The daughter is a third party and  not involved in the scam.
Detectives expect the prosecutor’s office will file charges shortly.