12:18 AM: Tuesday evening, police arrested four north-end bank-robbery suspects in South Park and White Center. It was a relatively lengthy helicopter-assisted operation, and the Guardian One crew has released video this past hour showing how it unfolded.
11:12 AM: The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office says that the four suspects will have bail hearings on Thursday, since they weren’t booked into jail until early this morning.
thanks WSB for providing that great vid of a very reasonable police pursuit and the eventual apprehension of these criminals. thanks to the SPD for ceasing the opportunity to apprehend. thanks to guardian one for their efforts to maintain visual contact.
Inspiring coordination of all team members and the steady, calmly spoken input from the Guardian One observer was noteworthy. He’d be a great coach for stress reduction.!Very glad this effort to trail and apprehend the suspects was successfully completed without any injury to other drivers/bystanders. Kudos to all on the road yesterday who were alert to the situation and quickly got out of the way.
This is what the cops are supposed to do, use a helicopter to track the suspect vehicle instead of endangering bystanders with a car chase.
There was for sure a car chase. My husband found himself in the middle of it while driving south on Ambaum. From what he described we are lucky no innocent bystanders were harmed.
Oof, I take back my comment then. Very unprofessional behavior on the part of SPD.
Jay. “Very unprofessional behavior” You’re mad the police went after and caught the crooks?? Really????
So, if you or your loved one(s) were robbed at gunpoint by 4 violent criminals you would want them to get away free if Guardian One was rescuing a hiker?
Same! The speed that officers were driving scared me to death. I was like — something serious happened. Like a shooting. Saw the chopper later.
Jay. If a helicopter wasn’t available, then what? I’m betting ALL the people decrying police chasing crooks are not victims. Willing to bet if they were and police didn’t chase they’d be the 1st to angrily blame police for NOT chasing.
This is an interesting point here – listening to the scanner all day most days, I have lost count of the times the helicopter has been requested but is unavailable. They have some backup use of “Smokey” from Snohomish County but more often, it’s just “oh well, sorry.”
This was absolutely a car chase. It went on for several miles, at very high speeds, and through residential areas with narrow streets. The video clearly shows an SPD unit doing a superb job of staying with the violent perpetrators.
Jay, I’m with you. While these people should be arrested, endangering passerbys is NOT ok. And that’s exactly what a high-speed chase does: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/07/30/police-pursuits-fatal-injuries/30187827/
Lauren. Sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You either want police to catch criminals or you want criminals to know all they have to do is drive away faster than the speed limit and police will not chase and they’re free to continue their criminal activity.
WOW!!! @ 12:50 how they find the second guy. I’m not for militarizing police, but this type of equipment seemed to be to the benefit to catch these criminals! Impressive!
One of the biggest misconceptions these days is that an AR is used in the military. That is not true. An AR is no different than a rifle.
Are you saying the wounds created from a 22 rifle are the same as wounds created from an AR?
Yeah, we can stop with this nonsense any day. What you really means is that the rifle fires a .223 cartridge instead of a 5.56mm (chamber pressure is different), and it doesn’t have select fire. These make absolutely no practical difference in how they are actually used. Ask a combat vet how many times they used full auto/burst instead of semi.Signed, A combat vet.
I’m sorry but he said that an AR is a rifle like any other, and I am exploring that. Can a 22 semi automatic rifle fire 5.56mm rounds then? The damage is entirely based on the ammo alone when it comes to the rifles performance characteristics? Can all rifles accept all ammos then? This entirely excludes the effect of cosmetic features, which undoubtedly make an AR more appealing for those interested in that sort of thing, versus a plain old 22 like I had growing up.
I’m a female. To answer some questions, No a 22 semi rifle will not fire 556 or 223 rounds. A 556 or 223 will fire 22 long rifle rounds if the right bolt carrier is used. No not all ammos fit in AR rifles. 556 and 223 fit in an AR 15 and lots of other calibers.308 fits AR 10 and 6.5 Creedmore plus various others. There’s pistol AR’s that shoot 9mm, 40, s&w, 10 mm, 45 ACP. Yes it’s more appealing because it’s like a Lego set for guns and you can change up parts. You’re more than welcome to see what we have. Stu and Sons Sporting Goods.
The claim that ARs are not used in the military is what set me off, tbh. That’s an argument used by people who oppose gun control measures and it’s misleading at best. What they mean is that there are civilian versions of our current military rifles and carbines dubbed ARs (AR stands for Armalite, the company that originally produced the weapons). There are a few differences between the military and civilian versions, but those differences are really on paper only. In actual combat – I was in Iraq in ’06-’07 and Afghanistan in ’09 – the military and civilian version of the weapon could have been used interchangeably and no one would have noticed. We only fired them in semi-automatic, and the shorter barrels of the M4 carbines largely negate the boost in velocity that you get from the 5.56mm round over the .223 civilian version.
First of all THANK YOU for your service. Secondly the media likes to push AR as meaning assault rifle instead of Armalite. I spend a lot of time correcting people.
You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. That’s completely false information.
Walker, there’s no substantial velocity differences between 5.56 and .223. Both can be safely fired in rifles marked .223. The only differences are in the way the primers in 5.56 cases are seated and some mild pressure differences. M855A1 62-grain military 5.56 ammo is loaded a bit hotter than the previous M855 load. The military chose the civilian .223 cartridge in the 1960s, not the other way around.
We got caught up in this chase as it was ending. The police did an excellent job surrounding this criminal. All evening all I could think about was how grateful this happened the time of day it did and not around school letting out. I hope that punk wipes his smile off of his face once he realizes how much time he’ll be serving for this.
YayEyes in the sky.You can run all you want ,the Drones will get you.Hide and seek….you lose
It’s always so satisfying to see the bad guys caught. Nice work on the part of law enforcement.
Best chase video since OJ. I hope Seattle City Councilperson Lisa Herbold watches it. Might help her get her mind right about police, but I doubt it.
surprised their car didn’t fall apart going over the I-5 expansion joints.
This is just another reason to SLOW DOWN.
No one EVER thinks they’ll get into an accident.
But when you’re driving 10-15+mph over the posted speed limit you CAN NOT slow down in time … & if there’s a very fast police pursuit you will end up in a major collision … & regret you didn’t drive just a bit slower.
I admittedly have little knowledge of drone technology, but just curious why drones can’t be employed instead of Guardian One given how limited of a resource that is? Are they just not advanced enough yet for this level of depth?
That’s how it’s done! Great team work between agencies. No unwarranted aggressive behavior by the arresting officers. Like LB commented, calm, cool & collected radio communications from Guardian One. Lowlifes with no regard for others safety or lives, off the street. We’ll see for how long…
Fantastic job, SPD! More police and another SPD Helo would be amazing.
Flashback to Los Angeles where these wild police chases with news choppers providing live coverage are a routine, almost a daily occurence.
Did anyone else want them to pull the dog back behind the car so it didn’t get hit with gunfire if the person starting shooting? I didn’t understand why they didn’t pull the dog back to a safer area after they found the person. Probably not thinking due to adrenaline.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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