Watch: Car fleeing deputy crashes into popular Tacoma bar’s patio. Woman arrested

A woman is accused of crashing a stolen vehicle into several parked cars and the patio of a Tacoma bar Wednesday.

A sheriff’s deputy located a stolen vehicle at 12:48 a.m. at 72nd Street East and McKinley Avenue East. When the deputy began to follow the vehicle, the driver sped off. A pursuit began, and the driver refused to yield, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Darren Moss told The News Tribune in an email.

When the deputy slowed down for a traffic light at 38th and McKinley Avenue, he lost sight of the driver. At the next intersection, there was a large amount of smoke in the road, Moss said.

The fleeing driver had crashed into several parked cars, he said. The woman driving the car and a male passenger walked away.

Top of Tacoma Bar & Grill bartender Ben Williams told The News Tribune that the car also crashed into the bar’s patio. There were two employees on the patio who narrowly escaped injury. No customers were injured as it was towards the end of closing.

The woman was arrested and taken to a local hospital. She later was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of eluding, possession of a stolen vehicle, first-degree malicious mischief and unlawful possession of a firearm, Moss said.

The man ran off, and a witness said he was holding a gun in his hand. Deputies found another gun on the floorboard of the driver’s seat of the car, Moss said.

Moss said they do not know what the woman and her passenger were doing in a stolen vehicle while armed that night.

“But whatever they were going to do, they didn’t get the chance now that she was arrested,” he wrote.

Williams said they are going to remove the damaged patio and build a new one. They would also like to have a barrier since it was the second time a vehicle has crashed into the bar’s patio. The first time was around 2017.