Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter: Cut on hand keeps suspect out of jail

Editor’s note: The Blotter is written based on information provided by Gig Harbor Police and Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One.

A Gig Harbor officer had to release a suspect with warrants for burglary, vehicular assault and motor vehicle theft last week — because of a cut on his hand.

A Gig Harbor officer arrested the suspect at a grocery store on Point Fosdick Drive. A grocery store employee called 911 to ask officers to check on two men who appeared to be sleeping in the front seat of a car with no license plates.

The officer who checked on the men saw tin foil and a blue pill in the driver’s lap. The officer believed the blue pill was fentanyl.

The officer discovered the man was the subject of Kitsap County arrest warrants for burglary, vehicular assault/DUI, and taking a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission. The combined bail amount associated with the warrants was $300,000.

The officer arrested the suspect, a 26-year-old Gig Harbor man, and drove him to the Kitsap County Jail in Port Orchard.

The officer wrote that a shift sergeant at the jail noted a cut on the suspect’s hand. The sergeant said the jail had to “medically refuse” the suspect until he had been treated for the cut.

The officer decided he could not wait around at the hospital while the suspect received treatment. Doing so would leave the city below its minimum staffing levels.

The officer released the suspect from custody at the jail in Port Orchard and returned to duty in Gig Harbor.

Another counterfeit report

The manager of a tanning salon told police that someone had used a counterfeit $100 bill to buy a $50 gift card. She told officers that she decided to report the crime after seeing a similar report on Facebook earlier that day.

Surveillance footage indicated that the suspect was the same as in the earlier incident. Officers forwarded a report on the additional crime to prosecutors for charging.