BREMERTON — We all know there is an undercurrent (or maybe an overcurrent) of questioning and attacking any kind of authority right now.
Officer assaults are up, and challenges to police are more common. Last Thursday night, Officer Steven Forbragd experienced this firsthand. He stopped a vehicle for a seatbelt violation.
Upon approaching the driver, the man immediately wanted to know why Officer Forbragd was stopping him. When Officer Forbragd asked for his license, registration and proof of insurance, the 58-year-old man stated, “No, I do not have any of that.” The driver went on to say he didn’t have to identify himself because Officer Forbragd “was not a sergeant” and he was in a “public conveyance.”
The driver continued on with statements like, “You committed a felony by activating your lights.” He wanted to talk about his Constitutional rights, but was unwilling to identify himself at all.
The man was ultimately arrested for obstructing law enforcement, failure to give information to a police officer and no driver’s license. He was booked into the jail on those charges.
Soon after getting to the jail, his focus moved from the Constitution to his health, and he told jail staff he was having a heart attack. So, we had the medics take him back to our city and the hospital. He was cleared by the doctors, who quickly established he was not having a heart attack.
Then he decided to be uncooperative with staff and refused to leave the hospital. They called the police and Officer Forbragd responded. The man was not happy with that part at all. He continued to refuse to leave, saying his rights had not been explained to him. He was finally arrested for trespassing and returned back to the Kitsap County Jail.
Man booked for attempted burglary:
Officer Forbragd had a busy night. Later that same evening, he came upon a man acting suspiciously in the 2000 block of Sixth Street. He was looking around as if he was being watched.
Officer Forbragd was in fact watching him, and suspected the man had just prowled a nearby residence. So, he went up and spoke with him. The man vehemently denied doing anything wrong, and when asked what he was doing at that house he said he went there to see a friend, but strangely he didn’t seem to know the name of this close friend.
About that time, a woman came out of the house and told the officer that same man had just tried to get into their house, and added that she had heard a loud bang as he was trying to get in.
Officer Forbragd now officially detained the man, and found dents on the door, consistent with someone striking it. The homeowners indicated those were new marks to the door, caused by this man. He was later booked into jail for attempted residential burglary.
Roadway block due to hit and run:
After “last call” late Saturday night, Officer Michelle Griesheimer took a report of a stalled car blocking the roadway on 31st Street in East Bremerton. She found it and quickly realized it was actually a parked car that had just been involved in a hit and run.
The owner was located and figured out the car had been struck with so much force, it spun around and was pushed about 250 feet from its original parked location. Officer David Hughes tracked the leaking fluid and the trail of car parts to what was believed to be the offending vehicle. It was parked and empty, but both airbags had been deployed and the keys were still in the ignition.
The car was just into unincorporated Kitsap County, and deputies assisted by going to the registered owner’s address. A man matching the description of the owner was found face down on his bed and, according to the deputy, what appeared to be “air-bag-deployment dust” was visible throughout the room and concentrated on the shirt, face and bedding material near the now peacefully sleeping man. The deputies handled the follow up.
SWAT called for domestic violence incident:
In last week’s update, I wrote about the sensitive handling of a call involving a veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately, this week we had another significant call involving PTSD. Sunday night, our dispatch center, CENCOM, sent officers to a domestic-assault incident at a residence in West Bremerton.
The caller said she was locked out and was standing on the back porch. She said her boyfriend, who is a decorated military veteran with severe PTSD, now had a gun pointed at her. The caller had left the residence and met responding officers nearby. She said they had both been drinking and had a fight, and she was strangled nearly to the point of being unconscious.
After multiple attempts to reach the boyfriend, or other parties who may have been able to reason with the boyfriend, the decision was made to prepare for a SWAT call out. Officers announced their presence over a PA system for over two hours, encouraging the man to come out peacefully. The SWAT team arrived; Officer Derek Ejde secured a search warrant and nearby residents were evacuated as the team prepared to enter.
The boyfriend came out at that time and was taken into custody, and he went to jail for second-degree assault and harassment, with bail set at $100,000.
Celebrate victory safely:
On Wednesday, there was a daytime Mariners game, and they finally won one after five straight losses. Sgt. Rich Cronk was directing traffic late in the afternoon near the ferry terminal when he observed a post-Mariners-win celebrant stumbling off the ferry with some friends. He was nearly run over by a bus as he stumbled onto the street. Rich assumed he would be getting a ride nearby. Not so much — Rich saw the man driving a short time later and pulled him over. He provided a .14 breath sample, well over the legal limit.
Four arrests for one bike patrol:
We have been getting bike and foot patrols out almost every day for the past few weeks to do the kind of enforcement that is difficult to do from a squad car. Thursday evening in just one four-hour period, Sgt. Randy Plumb and Officer Derek Ejde showed why it’s so effective, and so necessary. They located one man in the 1500 block of Park Avenue with a Dept. of Corrections arrest warrant, a woman at 6th and Park with a criminal trespass arrest warrant, a man on Veneta with a Corrections warrant and a fourth person loitering on 5th Street with a DUI arrest warrant. Yep — four in jail, and no longer on our streets, in just four hours.
Great work on gun recovery:
You may have seen the news articles Thursday about a recovery of a large number of guns that had been taken in a residential burglary in East Bremerton. Many officers did a great job on this significant case, but Officers Jeff Inklebarger and Johnny Rivera did some extraordinary work on identifying a suspect, locating him and getting an arrest within a very short time — great job!
Steven D. Strachan, Chief of Police
Bremerton Police Department
Steven.Strachan@ci.bremerton.wa.us
