At about 7:45 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, a man unloading items into his business in the 12300 block of 15th Avenue Northeast in Seattle called 911 to say someone had just driven off in his SUV. According to the Seattle Police Department’s account, the owner had video of a man climbing through the SUV’s open tailgate, starting it with the proximity push-to-start button, and heading east on Northeast 123rd Street.
The owner didn’t chase the SUV. He got into a patrol car with an officer and watched the dot move across North Seattle. At the end of it, police say, the officer opened the driver’s door and found a loaded gun pointed at him.
Washington’s pursuit law tells officers to weigh alternatives to a chase. An AirTag is one. This case also shows where a tracker’s help stops. It can tell police where the car is. It can’t tell them who is in the driver’s seat or what he’s holding.
From Pinehurst to the shore at Matthews Beach
SPD’s account, written by Detective Shane Weatherford under incident number 2026-322234, says an officer found a 38-year-old man sitting in the stolen SUV near the 10000 block of Riviera Place Northeast, in the Matthews Beach neighborhood along Lake Washington. Police say he put the SUV in reverse and hit the marked patrol car while the officer was still inside. He then backed into a yard and got stuck after hitting another home.
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According to the department, when the officer opened the driver’s door, the man pointed a loaded firearm at him and the officer took cover. Police say the man then got out, dropped the gun, ran through a carport and a backyard, and jumped into the lake.
He stayed in the water about 25 minutes. SPD says he told officers he had several active warrants and was worried about going to jail for a long time. Police say he complained the water was cold and refused to come back to shore. He eventually swam in and was taken into custody.
The department says Seattle Fire Department medics evaluated him. He told them he had swallowed drugs and then spit out a white substance, which police later identified as fentanyl. Police say he gave officers a fake name before they positively identified him. According to SPD, he was on Washington State Department of Corrections probation and had active warrants from the DOC, the King County Sheriff’s Office, and the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
What the tracker changed under Washington’s chase law
Washington regulates police chases more tightly than most states. RCW 10.116.060 says an officer may not start a vehicular pursuit unless all of these are true:
- the officer has reasonable suspicion that a person has violated the law
- the pursuit is necessary to identify or catch that person
- the person poses a threat to others that outweighs the danger of the chase
Even then, the officer has to notify a supervisor right away. Together they have to weigh alternatives to the pursuit, along with speed, weather, traffic, and road conditions.
The reasonable-suspicion standard itself is fairly new. The Legislature had tightened pursuit rules in 2021. Initiative 2113 loosened them again after passing the Senate 36-13 on March 4, 2024. Opponents argued in the legislative bill report that allowing chases on lower suspicion would make streets more dangerous. Supporters argued that officers needed the ability to pursue.
That fight was about chases at speed, and this incident never became one. SPD’s account describes no pursuit before the confrontation. The officer drove to a parked SUV with a man sitting in it. That is the “alternative to the vehicular pursuit” the statute tells officers to consider. In this case it cost about $29 and was riding in the owner’s SUV.
An AirTag doesn’t report its own GPS position. It sends out a Bluetooth signal. Nearby iPhones and other Apple devices pick up that signal and anonymously relay their own location to the owner. In a dense neighborhood like North Seattle, those updates come in often. On a rural highway, they can lag. Then the lake took over. A man who chooses to tread water in late October isn’t going far, and officers could wait him out from the shore.
A push-button start and an open hatch
SPD’s account says the SUV was started with its proximity push-to-start button. A proximity system starts the engine only when its antennas detect an authorized key fob inside the cabin or very close to it. So for the start to work as police describe it, the fob had to be within that range at that moment.
The release doesn’t say where the key was, and Backfire News isn’t guessing. The design point still applies to anyone who loads or unloads with the engine off, the hatch open, and the fob in a pocket nearby. Most keyless systems also won’t shut off an engine that is already running when the fob leaves the vehicle, because cutting power to a moving car is dangerous. They show a “key not detected” warning instead. Once the engine is running, the car can keep going without the fob.
What he faces
SPD says it arrested the man on three counts:
- Stealing the SUV. Washington makes theft of a motor vehicle a class B felony.
- Felony assault. Pointing a gun at someone can support second-degree assault, which covers assault with a deadly weapon and is also a class B felony.
- Unlawful firearm possession as a convicted felon. The degree of that charge depends on his prior record, which police haven’t detailed.
Under RCW 9A.20.021, a class B felony carries up to 10 years and a $20,000 fine. Washington’s sentencing grid usually produces much shorter terms, depending largely on criminal history. SPD says this man has a criminal history, plus open warrants in two counties and with the state.
These are police allegations. SPD has not released the man’s name, and Backfire News is not naming him. As of Nov. 3, I found no public charging document or defense statement, and SPD says the case remains under investigation. Under Washington’s CrR 3.2.1, a judge must find probable cause within 48 hours of an arrest. The rule also limits how long someone can be held before prosecutors file charges, generally 72 hours. So the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office should be making its charging decision now.
Seattle has seen this ending before
Other tracked-car recoveries in Seattle have ended in a collision with police:
- January 2022: A carjacking victim tracked the car remotely to Colman Park on Lake Washington Boulevard. Police say the occupants tried to ram a patrol car blocking the only exit, then drove across the grass, hit a park restroom, and got stuck in the mud. Officers found a handgun inside.
- April 2024: An owner helped police track her Honda CR-V to an Eastlake alley. Police say the 36-year-old driver hit a police cruiser, an empty baby carrier, and two parked cars, and narrowly missed a toddler.
- December 2025: Police arrested an armed 39-year-old felon who they say rammed a patrol vehicle with a stolen car in the Chinatown-International District, injuring two officers.
All of this is happening while car theft is falling. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports that Washington had the largest percentage drop of any state in 2025, with 39% fewer thefts than in 2024. That is 11,617 fewer stolen vehicles. Fewer cars are being taken. When one is found with the suspect still in it, though, the first person to reach the car is a police officer, and the moment the door opens is where these cases turn violent.
What a tracker owner can do, and what to leave to police
The owner in this case gave police a moving dot on a map and let an officer drive to it. The safer play is to report the location and let officers make the recovery. SPD’s account doesn’t say where the owner was when the gun came out. It does show what the officer found at the end of the dot, which was a loaded firearm and a man willing to back into a police car and through a yard to get away.
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For your own SUV, the inexpensive steps are:
- Hide the tracker where a thief won’t find it in two minutes.
- Keep the fob farther from an open hatch than you probably do now.
What comes next for this case is the charging decision, followed by a first appearance in King County Superior Court and holds from the DOC and both sheriff’s offices.
If your car were stolen and you had a tracker in it, should police let you ride along to guide them, or should owners hand over the location and stay out of the patrol car?
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