A man accused of breaking into a home early Friday drank from a can of gasoline when law enforcement tried to handcuff him at the residence in Seattle, Washington.
Police responded when a man called 911 for help, telling authorities his 17-year-old daughter informed him a person carrying a stick was trying to break into the house, located on 5th Avenue Southwest, King 5 reported Thursday.
The young woman was too frightened to open the door for them when they arrived at the scene. Therefore, officers breached the door to get inside because they were concerned about her safety; they were eventually able to rescue her.
Video footage shows officers announcing themselves while they are outside the door, then breaking through it to enter.
Once they made it to the garage, officers saw the suspect inside a vehicle and told him to put his hands in the air immediately.
The man appeared to be holding a red gas can, and one officer said, “He’s got a hammer in his lap.” The officers instructed him to open the door, but he did not. Moments later, the officers broke the car’s window and the man was seen lifting the gas can to drink from it as officers told him to keep his hands up.
“What the…?” one of the officers said the moment they opened the car door to pull the man out of the driver’s seat.
The officers then worked to move the struggling suspect onto the garage floor so they could safely handcuff him.
“The teen girl was eventually located on the second floor of the home and escorted her [sic] out to safety,” the King 5 report said, adding, “The 40-year-old suspect was booked into King County Jail on suspicion of residential burglary.”
In 2022, Seattle’s violent crime rate climbed to a 15-year high, according to a Seattle Police Department crime report.
Per the King 5 article published in February:
As crime rates have risen, the amount of officers within the Seattle Police Department has reached all-time lows. More than 400 police officers left the department through retirement or resignation in two hours. The number of trained and deployable officers in 2022 was 954, the lowest mark in over 30 years.
“Out of the respondents who report wanting to move, 80 percent rate the city poorly as a place to live, and 66 percent report feeling unsafe in their neighborhood,” the outlet said.
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