An Olympia Police Sergeant got more than he bargained for early Sunday morning when he pulled over a car for driving the wrong way down State Ave near Plum St. He ended up finding a pizza delivery driver tied up in the backseat, who had just been robbed and kidnapped at gunpoint.
The two suspects, identified as 19-year-old Daniel Cano-Real and 20-year-old Jonathan Medina, are both soldiers in the US Army, stationed at Joint Base Lewis McChord.
The 19-year old Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was making a delivery around midnight on Sunday morning in the 400 block of Devoe St NE. He had just finished making the delivery when he was blocked in by a silver car, and a male wearing a mask approached his window and pointed a gun at him.
According to OPD reports, he driver was told to exit his vehicle and to sit in the back seat of the suspect’s vehicle, where a second male was sitting, also pointing a gun at him. The two suspects then went through the victim’s car, stealing money and pizza, and then drove it off the road into the bushes.
They then bound the victim’s hands together with zip ties, and drove around Olympia until they were stopped by police for driving the wrong way on State Ave near Plum St. The Sergeant who stopped the vehicle described the stop as an “overwhelmingly odd interaction” and said there was “a sense of nervousness with all of the occupants”, so he called for backup.
Three backup officers arrived, and one of them noticed that one passenger’s hands were zip-tied together. Officers ordered the driver out of the car and he complied. The driver allegedly told them that the zip-tied man was “suicidal” and they were “trying to get him some help”.
Officers then pulled the victim out of the car, who immediately told officers what happened, and that the suspect still in the car was armed. Officers cut the zip tie off of the victim’s hands. They then detained the other male at gunpoint under threat of deadly force if he reached for a gun.
Once the car was clear, officers found a silver pocketknife and a “compact Glock style pistol” on the rear floorboard where the second suspect was sitting. They also found a black ski mask, a pack of white zip ties, and multiple bills of cash as well as a Dominos pizza bag.
Both suspects were then transported to the Olympia Police station where one admitted to the robbery and kidnapping. He told detectives that they “drove around random neighborhoods looking for someone to rob”. The other suspect asked for a lawyer and did not provide a statement.
Upon searching the victim’s vehicle, detectives located another black semi-auto pistol that had been shoved between the driver’s seat and center console. This gun had been stolen in Tacoma. The victim also had a dashcam, and that footage was turned over to detectives.
In the dash cam footage, you can hear the victim say “OK OK OK OK”, sounding distressed. You can also hear the suspect telling the victim to exit the vehicle, and then you can see one of the suspects drive the victim’s vehicle into the bushes and flee back to their car.
Both males were booked into the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of Kidnapping 1st Degree and Robbery 1st Degree. It is unclear if they also received a ticket for driving the wrong way on a one way street.
Thurston County Scanner, News, and Weather 