His Girlfriend Was Stopped for DUI, Do He Tried to Create a Distraction, Olympia Police Say

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A 23-year-old Olympia man was arrested this week on suspicion of criminal impersonation after he tried to distract police from a DUI stop, a spokesman for the department said.

About 6 p.m. Tuesday, Olympia police received a report about a "road rage" incident near downtown. The caller said the suspect vehicle contained two people, and one of them had displayed a handgun.

Police later found that vehicle near the Fourth Avenue Bridge downtown, with a female juvenile behind the wheel who also was intoxicated, Lt. Paul Lower said.

Prior to police finding the vehicle, she had dropped off the 23-year-old man, who was now listening to the DUI stop via his own police scanner.

In an effort to distract the police from the DUI stop, he used a radio to call Thurston County dispatchers and reported that an officer had been shot.



But Lower praised the dispatchers because they quickly determined that something was wrong.

The incident was reported on a frequency used by Lacey and Tumwater police, but not Olympia police, and when dispatchers asked the suspect for his police identification, he gave them information they didn't recognize, Lower said.

However, it did create a large police response in the area of the Fourth Avenue Bridge, according to a weekly update released to the community by Olympia police.

"Everyone was OK and the suspect was arrested, along with the friend for DUI," the weekly update reads.