A routine traffic stop escalated into an arrest for a 58-year-old Renton man on Sunday, after a Kent Police Department officer, identified as Officer Hernandez, pulled over the suspect's Honda Odyssey for running a red light around 9 PM at the intersection of SE 192nd and 140 AVE SE. Kent Police Department's social media post detailed the incident, citing that upon conducting the traffic stop, the officer noted the driver's erratic behavior and a medical situation as his excuse for speeding.
The situation intensified after the driver left the car and officers spotted a sawed-off Winchester 12-gauge shotgun beside the driver's seat, an illegal modification. The man claimed the shotgun was not his and that he had found it in a parking lot the day prior, according to the police department's account. While addressing the medical condition of the female passenger who was unconscious in the vehicle and whom the arriving officers and Puget Sound Fire medical personnel attended to, the officers also noticed signs of potential drug involvement, given the emission of white powder found around the passenger prior to her being transported to a local hospital. However, its connection to the incident has yet to be confirmed.
The discovery of the firearm led to the revelation that the driver was a convicted felon and not lawfully permitted to possess any firearms; he was found with three shotgun shells in his pockets upon arrest. It was a sobering end to what otherwise may have been a night lost to chance encounters and the suspect's 59th birthday, which occurred just two days after the incident - not a great way to celebrate, as the police department's post understatedly concluded.
Charges of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm and Unlawful Possession of a Short Barrel Shotgun were made against the Renton man who was medically cleared before being booked into custody.
