arrested by SWAT team

Des Moines police arrested a man suspected of sexually assaulting a woman in her apartment following a six-hour standoff on Feb. 20.

After she was assaulted, the woman, in her 40s, escaped and ran to a neighbor's house, while the man barricaded himself in the woman's Des Moines apartment around 3:30 a.m.

Responding police officers had reason to believe the man, in his 40s, was armed with a gun. After they made contact with him, the Valley Special Response Team arrived and took control of the scene around 6 a.m.

Apartments in the woman's building were evacuated as a precaution.

Just before 10 a.m., the Valley SRT fired a "flash-bang" distraction device through a window in the apartment, and arrested the man. He was turned over to Des Moines Police investigators, who were trying to determine if the victim and alleged assailant had met prior to the incident.

No injuries were suffered by anyone during the standoff or the arrest.

The man, described as a transient also in his 40s, was booked into the Regional Justice Center on sexual assault charges.

Shooting arrest in SeaTac

On Feb. 14, around 9:45 p.m., a SeaTac Police officer was leaving City Hall and driving west on South 188th Street toward 46th Avenue South when he noticed two cars weaving in and out of traffic.

Both cars were being driven in a reckless manner with the vehicles cutting each other off. One car finally did a u-turn, with the other car stopped and facing on-coming eastbound traffic.

At this time, the 911 center was getting a call regarding the incident-and that a gun was involved.

The officer stopped traffic and confirmed that a gun was in the vehicle. It appeared the driver had been shooting at the other car. The man with the weapon was arrested.

Car crash injures driver

A two-car accident in Burien early the evening of Feb. 17 left four people injured, one of them critically.

According to Burien Police, the driver of one car ran a stop sign at the intersection of Southwest 142nd Street and Fourth Avenue Southwest and crashed into another vehicle.

The impact forced both cars onto a neighboring yard, with one car coming to rest against a tree.

The driver of the car that ran the stop sign was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. The injuries to the three people in the other car were not reported.