Ax-wielding man takes off in deputy's patrol car |

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A man armed with an ax stole a patrol car during a fight with deputies Monday morning and made it several miles before crashing west of Puyallup.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said deputies were called to a disturbance about 7:30 a.m. and got into a fight with the armed man while trying to take him into custody.

The man used the ax to smash the window on a patrol car, got inside and drove off, Troyer said.

He drove for about two miles with deputies chasing him, causing a string of crashes before he crashed the stolen cruiser into a curb in the 10900 block of Canyon Road East.

"I feel the side of the car being hit and thought, 'What in the world just hit me?' " said witness Stephanie Beisler. "And I saw the police car next to me shoving its way between the two rows of traffic."

Beisler says the man then tried to commandeer several cars, including her pickup truck.

"When he realized he couldn't get in, he still tried the handle," she said. "He asked me 'please', and I shook my head no. But he headed to the car behind me and was able to get the driver's door opened to get in the car with that lady."

By then, a cavalry of cops had descended on the scene. The man ran and was quickly subdued with Tasers. Witnesses say it sure appeared like the man had been hit with Taser probes at his initial run-in with police as well.

"And you could see he had been Tased at some point, because he had little pieces of metal in his chest," Weisler said.

Troyer said the man "appeared to be on drugs and kind of out of his mind."

Medics were checking out a few people in cars that were sideswiped during the chase, but no one was seriously injured, Troyer said.