A Mad Dash for Liberty in Downtown Tacoma
A young burglary suspect escapes police custody and leads officers on a chaotic foot chase from City Hall to the Tacoma Hotel.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
While being led by a bevy of police officers from the city jail to the police court this afternoon, John Kristensen, a 20-year-old boy, arrested Tuesday afternoon while ransacking rooms of the Lansing hotel, broke away, and was captured only after a mad chase which ended in the lavatory of the Tacoma hotel. City Detectives Malone and Ashby took after the runaway, and Patrolman S. Darnell joined the chase. Five shots were fired into the air by the pursuers in an attempt to stop Kristensen. The young man made his break for liberty just as the gang of prisoners bound for the police court had reached the Pacific Avenue entrance to the city hall. He dashed across the street, and down the alley between Pacific Avenue and A Street. At Ninth, Kristensen turned towards A Street and Darnell took up the chase. Kristensen ran into the Tacoma hotel and darted into the lavatory, where he was easily captured.
“Five shots were fired into the air by the pursuers in an attempt to stop Kristensen.”
This dramatic escape provides a snapshot of downtown Tacoma in 1909, mapping the path from City Hall to the (now long-gone or repurposed) historic Lansing and Tacoma hotels. It highlights the high-stakes, sometimes amateurish nature of early 20th-century policing in the downtown core.
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