Kent officer fires Taser at man who wanted to fight | Police Blotter

A Kent Police officer fired a Taser twice at a man in the Home Depot parking lot after the man reportedly wanted to fight the officer.

Police arrested the man for investigation of provoking assault, obstructing an officer and criminal trespass at about 1:27 p.m. April 23 in the Home Depot parking lot, 26120 104th Ave. SE., according to the police report.

An officer saw the man waving his hands up in the air in the parking lot in the direction of a patrol vehicle. The officer drove over toward the man and began to exit his vehicle when the man screamed, “What?”

The officer told the man to step back and remove his hands from his pockets, but the man responded by saying he wanted to fight. The officer called for a second unit to come to the scene. The man then got into a fighting stance with his fists raised and began to move toward the officer.

The officer fired a Taser and a couple of darts hit the man. The man fell backward onto a dirt platform before removing the darts and coming at the officer for a second time. The officer fired the Taser again. When a second officer arrived, the man started to flee toward the store.

Two officers caught the man and handcuffed him. The man had been banned from the Home Depot store in January 2016 for lewd conduct.

Man punches girlfriend in face

Police arrested a man for investigation of fourth-degree assault after he allegedly punched his girlfriend in the face during a dispute in a vehicle on April 17 in the 800 block of Central Avenue South.

The girlfriend told officers that her boyfriend became upset after she gave him a ride to work and she offered to take his locked-up cellphone to get it repaired, according to the police report.

The boyfriend told her there was no way he would give her his phone. The couple then started to fight over the keys to the car and the boyfriend reportedly punched the woman in the face.

The boyfriend told police during the struggle for the keys his girlfriend’s hand slipped and hit him in the face, so he claimed he had to hit her back.

Man caught stealing from store

A man reportedly tried to take a bag of items at about 10:04 a.m. April 21 out of the Fred Meyer store, 25250 Pacific Highway S., without paying for the products when an officer stopped him outside the store.

The man told the officer he was just going outside to smoke a cigarette and planned to go back inside to pay for the items, according to the police report.

But when the officer questioned the man’s story, he told police he had planned to take the items to his car if police hadn’t spotted him leaving the store and stopped him.

A loss prevention store employee contacted the officer, hired by the store during off-duty hours to help prevent shoplifting and provide customers a safe place to shop, about the potential theft.

The officer saw the man take products from the cart and place them in a bag before putting the bag back into the cart and exiting the store without paying. Police arrested the man for investigation of third-degree theft.

Man possesses ‘tooter’

Officers arrested a man for investigation of possession of drug paraphernalia and a theft warrant out of Tukwila after they tracked him down at about 2:41 p.m. April 24 at the Hawthorn Suites, 6329 S. 212th St.

Three officers saw the man walking toward a vehicle in the parking lot after they heard he might have a room at the hotel, according to the police report.

During a search of the man, police found a plastic pipe known as a “tooter” in the man’s pants pocket as well as a plastic baggie with heroin inside. A “tooter” is used to smoke narcotics, according to the report.