TACOMA, Wash. -- Dreadlocks drew one lesson from his arrest: Anonymity beats fashion every time.
Dreadlocks was 32 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, 200 pounds, with distinctive shoulder-length braids.
He walked along Martin Luther King Jr. Way, near South 16th Street on June 10, wearing a brown jacket and dark jeans. An officer rolling past took one look and recognized him. Dreadlocks had an active arrest warrant on a weapons charge, and he was a suspect in a domestic-violence break-in. He kicked down his girlfriend's door, according to an earlier report.
The officer pulled a U-turn, drove up alongside Dreadlocks and ordered him to stop.
"For what?" Dreadlocks said, and started walking faster.
The officer called for backup and yelled at Dreadlocks to stop. Dreadlocks started running. He climbed a fence and scrambled through a backyard in the 1500 block of South J Street. Officers were surrounding the area.
The house that overlooked the backyard had a sliding glass door, partly open. An elderly woman peeked out. The officer asked the woman if she had seen Dreadlocks.
Before the woman could answer, Dreadlocks stood up and raised his hands. Two officers cuffed him. He had no weapons and no drugs.
In the patrol car, the officer checked on the arrest warrant. It came from Louisiana, dating to 2011. The other state wasn't interested in extradition.
Dreadlocks said he planned to shave his head so police wouldn't recognize him in the future. He started talking about his ex-girlfriend, called her a liar and said he didn't kick her door in.
He complimented the officer for excellent police work. He said he would be out in a day.
He said Tacoma officers would never catch him again. He was booked into the Fife City Jail on suspicion of obstructing a police officer.
Copyright 2013 - The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
