Teen arrested after waving pellet gun and stealing from Capital Mall store
Olympia WA Sept 3 2021 Olympia police arrested a teenager who waved what appeared to be a gun as he and three others allegedly stole from a store at Capital Mall Tuesday evening.
Reports of the incident spread quickly on social media, but Lt. Paul Lower confirmed to The Olympian that the reported gun was a pellet gun handled by a 16-year-old boy.
Officers booked the 16-year-old into the Thurston County juvenile detention facility on suspicion of felony harassment and third-degree theft, Lower said. Two other men, one 22 and another 18, were booked into the Olympia Municipal Jail, he added.
The incident started around 6 p.m. with reports of four males stealing from a Dick’s Sporting Goods store, Lower said.
“As officers arrived, a person exited the store saying there were four young men in there causing a disturbance and one of them was waving a handgun around,” Lower said. “(The witness said) that person had come out toward the parking lot and pointed the handgun at cars.”
The officers quickly located three of the males within the mall and arrested them without incident, Lower said, but the fourth male eluded police. They confiscated a pellet gun from the juvenile, which Lower said resembled a real gun.
“They just contacted them, ordered them to the ground without a problem and arrested them,” Lower said.
Lower did not have a description to share for the fourth male. He said officers plan to interview the three in custody and review security footage to identify the fourth suspect.
