Suspect shot after robbery at jeweler's
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A man who saw two suspected armed robbers fleeing a downtown Snohomish jewelry store yesterday opened fire on their getaway car, wounding the driver, who was later arrested, police said.
Snohomish police were searching last night for the second suspect, while the store's owner was in serious condition at a Seattle hospital after he was hit in the head with a hammer during the robbery.
The robbers walked into Sachi Fine Jewelry & Design on First Street in Snohomish shortly before noon, pepper-sprayed the first employee they encountered, smashed jewelry cases and hit the owner with the hammer, said Snohomish Police Chief Rob Sofie.
A spokeswoman at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle identified the owner as 52-year-old Brad Jorgensen of Snohomish. The woman who was pepper-sprayed was treated at the scene, according to Sofie.
Police are still piecing together what happened but said a local businessman who was walking by the store tried to stop the robbers as they were fleeing. They think that when he was unsuccessful, he pulled out a handgun and shot out one of the tires of the apparent getaway car, and then shot into the vehicle, hitting the driver in the arm.
The car, which had been stolen yesterday morning in Seattle, was chased several blocks by a motorist to a residential area. At some point, the suspects' car got into a hit-and-run accident, Sofie said.
Eventually, they ditched the car and ran between some homes and changed clothes, then ran into a heavily wooded area, Sofie said.
Snohomish police, with help from K-9 units from Monroe and the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, as well as a helicopter from the Sheriff's Office, surrounded the area, which is near an elementary school. "Thank God this is spring-break week," Sofie said.
One of the dogs led police to the injured suspect, who was in custody last night after being treated for a minor wound at a local hospital. The other man wasn't found, despite an intensive search that included a thermal-imaging device.
Police also found clothes and jewelry in the woods, and recovered a handgun from the passer-by who shot at the car and a stolen gun from the jewelry store which is thought to have been left by the suspects.
The man who shot at the car has a concealed-weapons permit, although it was not clear last night whether the gun he used was registered to him, Sofie said.
Police were interviewing several witnesses and had only a partial description of the second suspect last night: a white man in his late teens or early 20s, 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 11, with a medium build and brown or dark hair. He was wearing dark clothing. "But he's probably changed," Sofie said.
"It was scary," said Terrie Williams, a waitress at a nearby cafe who ran outside after hearing gunshots and saw a man with a gun standing in front of the jewelry store. "I didn't know who he was or what was (happening).
"We were all concerned about Brad," she said. "He's a very nice guy."
Janet Burkitt can be reached at 206-515-5689 or jburkitt@seattletimes.com.