Around 1 a.m. Friday, a Pierce County deputy spotted a car tearing down 224th St E in Spanaway well over 80 mph with its headlights switched off. What followed was a chase that pushed past 100 mph before ending in a crash that toppled a light pole onto a fence and a parked, unoccupied vehicle.
According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, the 18-year-old driver tried to run once the pursuit began but was quickly taken into custody after the crash. Deputies also arrested a 22-year-old passenger who was in the car at the time. Per the sheriff's office, deputies deployed stop sticks to slow the fleeing vehicle before it lost control, and the pursuit was safely ended before an innocent bystander was seriously hurt.
Deputies say they located a Glock handgun equipped with a modified switch and an extended magazine inside the vehicle, per the sheriff's office. The device, commonly known as a Glock switch, is a small aftermarket part that converts a semi-automatic pistol to fire fully automatically. Both the driver and passenger were arrested on suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm, and the driver also faces a charge of eluding. The vehicle has been impounded pending a search warrant, and the investigation remains active.
Why Deputies Were Legally Cleared to Give Chase
Washington's Initiative 2113, which took effect in June 2024, restored law enforcement's authority to pursue vehicles under a reasonable-suspicion standard whenever a suspect appears to have broken any law and poses a threat to public safety, according to the Association of Washington Cities. That standard is a notable shift from a 2021 law that limited pursuits to cases involving probable cause of violent crimes, before lawmakers loosened the restrictions again amid public safety concerns.
That authority is what allowed deputies to initiate the pursuit for what began as a high-speed traffic violation, before it escalated into a chase exceeding 100 mph through Spanaway. Attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle is itself a Class C felony in Washington under RCW 46.61.024, which requires proof that a driver willfully refused to stop and drove recklessly, a violation that also triggers automatic license revocation upon conviction, per Washington law.
What a Glock Switch Means Under State and Federal Law
Under Washington's RCW 9.41.190, possessing or transporting a machine gun conversion device like a Glock switch is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $10,000 fine. Federal law goes further: under 18 U.S.C. §§ 921 and 922(o), such a device is legally treated as a machine gun even when it is not attached to a firearm, carrying a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison, according to the Department of Justice. It remains an open question whether federal prosecutors will pursue charges in this case, though the Western District of Washington has ramped up enforcement against these devices, including a January 2026 sentencing tied to the recovery of 103 Glock switches — the largest single seizure of its kind in the district.
Unlawful possession of a firearm carries its own tiered penalties in Washington: second-degree possession is a Class C felony with up to five years in prison, while first-degree possession is a Class B felony carrying up to 10 years, per state law. Both the driver and passenger face unlawful possession charges, though the dossier does not specify which degree applies to either suspect or detail their prior criminal histories.
A Dangerous Stretch for Unincorporated Pierce County
Spanaway is unincorporated, meaning the Pierce County Sheriff's Office provides all primary law enforcement and traffic enforcement for the community, part of a patrol area covering more than 400,000 unincorporated residents countywide, according to Pierce County's government. That is why deputies, rather than a municipal police department, responded to the pursuit and crash.
The county's own Vision Zero data shows speeding drivers were involved in more than a third of all fatal traffic collisions on unincorporated roads between 2013 and 2023, part of an initiative aiming to eliminate traffic deaths there by 2035. Fatal crashes across Pierce County have also climbed sharply, averaging 88 per year between 2021 and 2025 compared with 62 per year from 2015 to 2020, according to the Freeman Law Firm, with state safety data pointing to speeding and impairment as recurring factors.
This is at least the second high-profile Pierce County pursuit this summer to end in a serious collision; Hoodline previously reported on a fiery Parkland pursuit crash that also ended with a firearm recovered and a 22-year-old arrested. No injuries were reported among bystanders in Friday's Spanaway crash, and the investigation into the vehicle and its occupants continues.
