Man accused of robbery, ramming police car captured

An officer in the area spotted the vehicle and attempted to make a traffic stop. The suspect vehicle then rammed a police vehicle occupied by an officer and a police K-9. The officer and the police dog were not injured.

The robbery suspect, later identified by police as Thomas J. Keys, 41, continued to flee, police said. At some point during the pursuit, a Vancouver police officer fired at the vehicle, police said.

The vehicle pursuit ended when the stolen vehicle crashed into a tree in the 12400 block of Northeast 28th Street and its driver fled on foot, police said.

Officers from the Southwest Washington Regional SWAT team responded to assist with a search of the area where the suspect was last seen, which included the area around Endeavour Elementary School and the Madison Park Apartments.

Police searched until about 2 a.m. but did not locate the suspect.

Around 5:30 a.m. Friday, a clerk at Chevron called 911, saying that Keys had just asked for change for the bus. The clerk recognized him from news reports, said Sgt. Mike Chylack. A patrol officer went to the convenience store at Northeast 18th Street and 162nd Avenue and found Keys across the street at a C-Tran bus stop. He was taken him into custody before he got on the bus, Chylack said.

“It was very nonchalant,” he said.

Keys was booked into jail on suspicion of a long list of charges: first-degree robbery, five counts of first-degree assault, possession of stolen property, attempting to elude, felony-level hit-and-run, theft of a vehicle, first-degree malicious mischief and an arrest warrant.

Josh Ramsey said that the vehicle involved in the robbery crashed in his front yard at Northeast 105th Street and 94th Avenue in the Sunnyside neighborhood. When Ramsey went to check on the driver, the driver drove over Ramsey’s left foot and sped south down Northeast 94th Avenue, which eventually turns into Northeast 112th Avenue.

Ramsey went to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center to treat his foot and later learned from an officer that Keys and the stolen vehicle were involved in a robbery nearly four miles down the street.