The Spotlight: Police chase leads to investigation break in murder case

A Coast Guard member murdered, and now his accused killer is captured. Exclusive video shows the arrest in Kent, as a key piece of evidence nearly slipped away. Facing a judge after biting off part of a woman's face. Did you bite her at all? What the suspect told police after a grisly attack in downtown Seattle. A pickup truck becomes a battery ram on a Linwood business. I mean glass breaking loudly, very loudly. why this attempted robbery at a jewelry store was all smash and no grab tonight in the spotlight this spotlight brought to you by Beacon Plumbing well good evening and thank you for joining us for the spotlight i'm david rose and we begin tonight with a high-speed police chase a backpack dumped in a trash can and a gun that detectives say was used to kill a coast guard lieutenant king county major crimes detectives say 18 year old isaiah bolar was driving a stolen prius used in the murder of Connor Overstreet, who was shot to death in Skyway while riding Lime scooters with two friends. Exclusive body cam video from Kent police shows Bolar's arrest two days after the murder and a high-speed chase through two cities. On the ground! On the ground! I'm sorry. Tense moments after Kent police cornered Isaiah Bolar on a dead-end street. Don't do it, or we'll chase you. All right, I got lethal. I got lethal. I promise to God I'm not going to do anything. I swear to God I can do something stupid. I promise to God. I promise to God. I promise to God. driving a Prius that had been stolen in Seattle. What the am I doing? No. What the am I doing? I don't even know why I ran. How the did I run? We'll get to that. After Bolar was read his rights, he told officers why he thought they were chasing him. Do you have any idea why we were trying to pull you over? I think it's because my mom called. Called about what? She just kicked me out. So you ran from the police because you thought your mom called you because you left the house? Yeah. Why would you run from the police for that? She kicked me out. She said she was going to call the cops, but I didn't leave. She called the cops, and they went there. That's when I left. An officer explained to him why he was actually being arrested. Hi, buddy. At this time, man, can't run from the police, bro. You put so many people's lives in danger by running from us, okay? You ran through red lights, stale reds. You could have been T-boned. You could have T-boned somebody else. So, unfortunately, you are going to be under arrest for eluding at this time. With Bolar in custody, the search turned to his passenger, who had jumped out with a backpack. A neighbor points officers toward some trash bins. Do you see where he ran? officers quickly catch the passenger another 18 year old who tells them bolar ordered him to get rid of the bag we're blurring his face because he has not been charged with a crime bro he told me I don't know, he said just throw it away, where you throw it was in a trash can somewhere, you put it in a trash can yeah, I don't know, he said just bro, he was like he was like, he's like take it and just throw it in that trash can right there and so I guess where you guys stop, yeah, I might be able to show you Officers locate the backpack and make a critical discovery. We found it. Good. Is there a gun in it? Feels like it. Oh. Inside, detectives say, was a Ruger .357 revolver with five live rounds and one empty chamber. And later, they found Bolar's temporary driving permit and a family photograph inside the same bag. Two days earlier, on August 23rd, 29-year-old Coast Guard Lieutenant Connor Overstreet had been shot and killed while riding a scooter with friends in Skyway. Witnesses told detectives the shot came from inside a Toyota Prius, which sped away. Bolar told police he'd just borrowed the car from his cousin. Which cousin's name? Donald. Donald? Yeah. Your cousin's name is Donald? Yeah. Donald what? I don't know his last name. Is he Juby or Donald? He says he's 18. Okay. So I'm going to run him, make sure he's telling me the truth. Okay. He said he got this vehicle from his cousin Donald. Doesn't know his last name, doesn't know anything about Donald. He's only had it for a day. That tracks, yeah, it's super reasonable. Yeah, of course. He doesn't know his friend's last name either. After Bolar was booked and charged with attempt to elude a pursuing police vehicle, he was released from jail. But a month later, state crime lab tests linked the revolver found in the backpack to the bullet that killed Overstreet. Detectives arrested Bolar again, this time for second-degree murder. In a statement, his attorney, Emily Gauss, says the state has not proven Bolar was even inside the Prius when Overstreet was shot. She argues prosecutors have no evidence identifying him as the shooter or proving he knowingly helped someone commit murder. She writes, Isaiah Bolar is innocent. There is no evidence that he was the shooter and no evidence that he knowingly helped anyone commit a murder. Gauss also points out that Bolar has no prior criminal history and calls his $3 million bail excessive. Bolar has pleaded not guilty. At his arraignment, Judge Nelson Lee acknowledged investigators have not determined who fired the fatal shot. He ordered us not to show Bolar's face in court. That certainly does not eliminate the likelihood or even the probability that the defendant perhaps acted as an accomplice. Nonetheless, I am going to grant the defense's media motion and limit the media or restrict the media from filming him only from the neck down. For now, Bolar remains in custody, facing a murder charge that could send him to prison for decades. His attorney insists he's innocent, and while detectives say they found the gun that killed Connor Overstreet, the question of who pulled the trigger remains at the center of the case. So, King County major crimes detectives are still actively working this homicide, and they continue to encourage anyone who has information on who else might have been involved in the murder to submit a tip to Crime Stoppers. Remember, there is a $41,000 cash reward offered for information that leads to another arrest and charge filed in the case. And you will remain anonymous when you text the information through the P3 Tips app on your cell phone. A group of four teenagers are facing charges after they were arrested at Angle Lake Transit Center parking garage during an operation to stop rampant car thefts. Two of the suspects are only 14 years old. King County Sheriff's deputies on the Sound Transit Special Emphasis Team, Burien Police, and SeaTac detectives conducted the operation after getting reports of multiple cars stolen from the parking garage in recent weeks. They arrested all four teens, including a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old girl. Deputies say she told them she had been involved in stealing five vehicles from the parking garage. Detectives recovered a screwdriver used to break windows and strip the ignitions. The thieves were targeting Kias and Hyundais. One stolen Elantra was used in an armed robbery in Seattle. The two 14-year-olds and the 16-year-old were booked into the juvenile detention center for attempted vehicle theft, possession of a stolen vehicle, and attempt to elude police. Two were released on electronic home monitoring, and the third was released to his parents. The fourth suspect, 18-year-old Peyton Rose Cummings, was released, but then she showed up for her arraignment. She entered a not guilty plea after her attorney tried to get Judge Josephine Wiggs to ban our camera. The judge denied their request. Prosecutors have charged her with two counts of taking a motor vehicle without permission in the second degree. Detectives say she told them she has participated in more vehicle thefts than she can account for. Because Cummings showed for court, Judge Wiggs allowed her to remain free on her own recognizance. I have since been in contact with Peyton. She says she has admitted her wrongs and is willing to take the consequences for her actions. She promises we will see no further warrants or cases involving her going forward. Her trial is scheduled for December. A woman charged in a gruesome assault case in Seattle has been deemed incompetent to stand trial. Camelia Chadley is accused of biting a chunk of flesh out of a woman's forehead back on September 18th. Police say the victim was a stranger walking to a convenience store when Chadley yelled racial slurs, then attacked. Body cam video of the arrest shows Chadley claiming that police have the wrong woman in cuffs. I'm the victim. I was assaulted, sir. I told you so. Handcuffed and seated on the sidewalk, 36-year-old Camelia Chadley told Seattle police she was harassed while smoking a cigarette. Chadley claims the woman lunged at her, but did not deny biting her face. Police say the victim, Diana Gonzalez, was walking near 3rd and Cherry when Chadley started yelling at her from a distance, then started hurling trash and racial slurs. She said inferior race? Exactly. We spoke with Gonzalez more than a week after the attack. Still bandaged up, she told us how the encounter escalated into violence. She grabs me, I fall on top of her, and almost immediately I go to the side of her, and that's when she bites me. She doesn't try to fight me, she doesn't try to hit me in any other way. She goes straight to biting my forehead. An inch in diameter of flesh chewed off her forehead. Despite her bleeding face, Gonzalez chased after Chadley and got some help from a valet at the nearby Arctic Club who alerted a marshal at the King County Courthouse. Chadley was detained at a nearby bus stop. When police placed her under arrest, she did not exercise her right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you under the law. I need you to listen. It's very important. It's important for you. Chadley will now undergo 90 days of treatment and then the court will make a new determination of whether she's competent to stand trial her next court date is set for January 12th Diana Gonzalez sent us a statement on the developments in court saying quote I hope that Chadley gets treatment to restore competency to prevent additional delays in justice being served if she's unable to restore competency I would hope that she is committed until she is no longer a danger to public safety. Well, now to a prickly situation in Pierce County. The woman is being held in jail on a long list of charges after deputies say she tried to run away from them. That's when she and another man wound up in some blackberry bushes. Pierce County Sheriff's Office, you're under arrest. You need to come out now with your hands up. Do you think they ran? Yeah, they're running that way. You can hear a breaking brush. On September 30th, just after 10 30 p.m deputies were called out to a home after two roommates got into a fight one woman allegedly threatened the other with a knife deputies discovered the woman took off with another man so they set up containment around a wooded area with a waiting K9, this feels like it's taking forever the man announced he was giving up but there was a problem he couldn't get out of the prickly bushes they had to use a ladder to get him out he did it well he was not arrested after deputies figured out there was no probable cause to hold him but deputies found the woman hiding nearby she's been identified as Jasmine Tutino after she was put in handcuffs deputies gave kudos to K9 Clark for his help well you know we knew he was in here but he wouldn't no answer nothing like that his dog is a banshee of a dog like if you get riled up he sounds like a it's terrifying yeah so i'm like hey that's a capture that's a that's a that's a Non-force capture, yeah. Tutino was charged with having weapons apparently capable of producing bodily harm and malicious mischief, third degree. Both are gross misdemeanor charges. A brazen robbery attempt was captured on camera in Linwood. A pickup truck rammed into the front entrance of a jewelry store as multiple armed suspects tried to rob the shop. This happened in the middle of the afternoon back on October 6th. As the Spotlight's Jennifer Dowling reports, the suspects were fended off by the store owner who grabbed a gun and opened fire. surveillance video from inside Medina Jewelers captured the moments a truck barreled into the store sending glass flying and store employees running oh my god it sounded like a total crash Julie Baumgartner was watching a movie next door in her apartment when the robber struck i mean glass breaking loudly very loudly that's what made me jump up and look out my living room window right away and i saw the truck inside the jewelry store before the truck smashed into the store, you could see the robbery suspects driving three vehicles in circles around the parking lot, including the truck, a black BMW SUV, and a silver Toyota or Infiniti sedan. After the truck plows into the store, a group of masked suspects jump from the other cars and run inside through a gap in the glass, one holding what looks like an axe. The store owner grabs his gun and when shots are fired, the group runs back outside to flee without taking anything. The suspect who is driving the truck then gets out to follow as the shop owner continues to point a gun. It appears the suspect is hunched over waiting for the getaway car but police say it's still unclear if anyone was actually hit by a bullet. The broad daylight and is a pretty rare occurrence for us. Commander Joe Dickinson says they are still working to learn if the suspects had a gun as well and says it's fortunate nobody was hurt as the truck drove over this customer seating area and glass flew all the way to the back wall. You had several witnesses that were out and about, several pedestrians walking around, and then all of a sudden a car crashing into the building and shots being ringing out, you know, cause for an alarm. And it's just sad because they're really nice people. I'm glad there wasn't any customers in there that got hurt because they would have the way the truck went into the building. That's really scary. For the Spotlight, I'm Jennifer Dowling. If you have any information that could help investigators, submit a tip by calling Linwood Police or emailing them at crimetipsatlinwoodwa.gov. Next in the spotlight, a crucial role in the criminal justice system. The two candidates vying to be Pierce County's next prosecuting attorney share their visions for public safety. A disturbing case out of Pierce County. A mother is accused of intentionally causing a crash on I-5 and then trying to stab her own daughter before several Good Samaritans stepped in. Images from the wreck show an SUV on its side after hitting a concrete barrier near DuPont on the morning of October 5th. Washington State Patrol says 35-year-old Janika Amber Marie Ellington was behind the wheel with her two daughters in the vehicle. Witnesses say she was driving erratically. Then, after the crash, chased her teenage daughter with a knife while yelling threats to kill her. Three Good Samaritans, including two JBLM soldiers, intervened, disarming Ellington and holding her on the ground until troopers arrived. According to court records, Ellington told troopers she'd been drinking straight whiskey the night before and was driving with no sleep. One of her daughters told troopers her mom was driving to her uncle's house in Steilacoom and thought people were following them and they were all going to die. That's when she crashed the car into the concrete barrier. Ellington is charged with first-degree attempted murder, vehicular assault, and felony harassment. She was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation and is being held without bail. Pierce County voters are choosing a new prosecuting attorney, and the two candidates offer distinctly different backgrounds and visions for the office. Corrine Schneff is the current chief criminal deputy prosecutor, while Brian Chuskoff spent nearly three decades as a superior court judge. I spoke with both candidates about crime, public safety, and what they would change. For Corrine Schneff, the strength is her experience inside the prosecutor's office. She's been a prosecutor for 20 years, handling cases from domestic violence to human trafficking to murder. Today, she oversees Pierce County's criminal division, about 200 employees. I know that this office needs an experienced leader at the helm of it, somebody who knows what it takes to get a case to trial, someone who knows the inner workings of the office. Schneff says violent crime is a priority, along with car theft, organized retail theft, and fentanyl. She's pushed lawmakers to make it a felony when a parent exposes a child to fentanyl, even if the child survives. I've seen how crime impacts the community. I've walked with victims as they've had to relive some of the worst memories of their lives in front of the person that did the harm to them. She also created a complex crimes unit to bring prosecutors into major police investigations earlier and wants a public dashboard to show how the office handles their cases. It doesn't matter what community group you go and talk to. They want to know what our office is doing, how our office is addressing crime. Are we being fair? Schneff says her goal is making communities safer. I want to make it a place where people want to raise their families, where they're not afraid to walk down the street. Her opponent, Brian Chuskoff, says the office needs more fundamental change. He spent 28 years as a superior court judge, including four as presiding judge overseeing 100 employees. He also spent 19 years working as an attorney, including defending people accused of murder. And I think there's a genuine need for change. The criminal case management, I think, has been failing. There's a distance between the local law enforcement community and the prosecutor's office. Chuskoff wants specialized trial teams, more mentorship for younger attorneys, and better communication with police. He questions why pending criminal cases have increased while filings have fallen. People's memories fade. Their memory is going to be one thing at six months. It's going to be another thing at a year old. People may move away. People may pass away. Shuskoff presided over the 2023 trial of three Tacoma police officers charged in the death of Manny Ellis. All three were acquitted. Some of Ellis' family and supporters criticized his evidentiary rulings. The Ellis case did cause states' approach. It had a ripple effect on all this. And I'm sure there are people that support me because of my role in that. But there are also people that reflexively would not support me because of my role in that. Chuskoff, who was born in Tacoma, says his experience also extends to civil litigation. I think it's important to guide the community, to have somebody who's at the top, who's sort of knowledgeable and understands the nuances of navigating that kind of a serious financial risk to the county. Two veteran attorneys, two different approaches. Schneff promising experience and continuity. Shuskoff calling for changes to how the office operates. The two candidates do agree on some things. Both opposed proposed changes to Washington's bail system to allow some defendants to pay cash to the court to be released. Both say they want a better working relationship with law enforcement, including Sheriff Keith Swank. And both say public safety must come first. Next in the spotlight, an accused copper wire thief impersonating a Seattle City light worker. Why he's once again on the run after police saw through his disguise. A convicted felon is on the run after failing to appear in King County Court in a case where he's accused of stealing copper wire from the West Seattle bridge lights. This is Gregory Wayne Kalitsek. King County prosecutors have charged the 47-year-old with malicious mischief in the first degree, criminal impersonation in the first degree, and theft in the first degree. Body cam video from Seattle police shows his arrest on June 27. An officer spotted him walking on the bridge with bundles of copper wire hanging on his arms. Kalitsek claimed he was working for Seattle City Light. How long have you been an employee for the City of Seattle? A few months. Okay. How come you don't have a City of Seattle card? Oh, I don't know. I didn't even know they gave them out. Maybe they haven't told me about it. Well, the officer wasn't buying that story because there were no City Light trucks nearby, no co-workers, and the utility could not confirm his story. Kalitsek was booked into jail, but then he was released two days later pending charges. When he didn't show up for court, Judge Nelson Lee signed a bench warrant for his arrest on July 7th. Kalitsek has multiple felony convictions, including two for burglary. He's had 16 warrants issued for his arrest. He's six feet tall, 160 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. If you spot him, please call 911. Well, that's going to do it for tonight on The Spotlight. Until next week, I'm David Rose. Please stay safe.