Man arrested after breaking into Olympia home, holding owner hostage
Olympia Police were dispatched to a home in the South Capitol neighborhood Sunday afternoon after a neighbor saw a person leave a home with his hands up, yelling for someone to call the police.
Police arrived about 3 p.m. Sunday at a home in the 2500 block of Columbia Street Northwest. Lt. Paul Lower said the homeowner had come home to a stranger in his house. He confronted the man and was attacked and wrestled to the ground.
The suspect took the man’s phone and made him sit on the couch. He then moved the homeowner downstairs to the basement where the homeowner helped clean the suspect’s “very injured right thumb.”
As the suspect was changing in the bathroom, the homeowner managed to escape outside, where he yelled for help. He had been kept in the house for about an hour.
Officers developed probable cause for multiple felonies, including residential burglary, robbery and unlawful imprisonment, leading to a search of the house. They found the basement had been barricaded, but the suspect was nowhere to be seen.
Police determined the suspect had fled on foot. He was located on the east side of the Capitol Campus and was taken into custody. Lower said police used a field fingerprint machine to identify the man as a 42-year-old transient man.
Police determined that the suspect’s thumb was severely infected and needed medical attention, and he was sent to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle by ambulance. Police contacted designated crisis responders who said they would evaluate the man’s mental health once his thumb had been treated.
Charges of robbery in the first degree, kidnapping and burglary were referred to the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 8:46 AM.
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