Police: Everett Safeway ex-worker accused of trying to ram customers

EVERETT — Police arrested an Everett man suspected of trying to run customers over in a Safeway parking lot Tuesday, leaving two crime scenes in his wake.

The man, 40, a former employee of the Safeway at 4128 Rucker Ave., was showing symptoms of psychosis, Everett police officer Natalie Gibbons wrote in a report.

Around 1 p.m., officers responded to reports of an “erratic driver” outside the grocery store, the officer wrote. They arrived to find a man circling the lot in a black Chevrolet Cavalier.

One man later told officers the driver was yelling insults at him from his car as he was walking into the store, according to police. Security footage reportedly showed the man jumping onto the hood of the Chevrolet as it accelerated toward him. He ran into the store to get help.

An employee reportedly came outside and witnessed the driver trying to hit two other customers before steering his car toward the store, the report read. She reported the man worked there for at least 1½ years.

He fled south on Rucker Avenue.

Officers found the man doing donuts in the Veterans Affairs clinic parking lot at 220 Olympic Boulevard, just over a mile west of the Safeway, according to police. The man “continued to drive around officers in circles and did not stop,” Gibbons wrote in her report.

Eventually, after a “long negotiation process,” police wrote, officers arrested the man for investigation of second-degree assault and attempting to elude law enforcement.

The man “did not acknowledge his rights, nor did he agree to answer any questions,” Gibbons wrote.

Around 4 p.m., he was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett due to his erratic behavior, to get cleared for booking into jail. He was finally booked around 10:20 p.m.

On Wednesday, Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard set bail at $50,000. The man remained in the Snohomish County Jail this week.

Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.