Sandy MaloneSeattle, WA – The rape suspect who crashed into four parked cars in Seattle as he fled police last month was a convicted felon who had most recently been arrested and released in July.
The chase began on Aug. 29 after a 25-year-old woman called police and reported that she had been sexually assaulted by 23-year-old Maygag Warsame and gave police his description, KIRO reported.
The victim told police that two men were harassing her on the sidewalk near the Oak Tree Plaza and Warsame pulled up in his vehicle and asked if she was okay and needed a ride, KCPQ reported.
She told police the men continued to follow her, so she got into car with the man she thought was a good Samaritan.
But then Warsame drove her to a gas station and showed her two guns and pepper spray, KCPQ reported.
She told police ”He kept telling her she needed protection working out here,” according to the affidavit.
Prosecutors said Warsame told the woman that “his boys would kill her if she tried to escape,” according to KCPQ.
Court documents showed he drove his victim to an alley that was near another gas station and sexually assaulted her.
The woman escaped from her captor’s vehicle hours later and ran into a Starbucks for help, KCPQ reported.
The probable cause affidavit said Warsame left but returned to the area a short while later.
Police spotted the suspect SUV on Aurora Avenue South and tried to stop it, KCPQ reported.
Warsame refused to pull over and Seattle police officers pursued him, KIRO reported.
Witnesses said the fleeing driver slammed the SUV into four parked vehicles near North 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North as he tried to escape.
Police said the chase ended when Warsame hit a car so hard that it jumped the curb, KIRO reported.
The vehicle belonged to Kody Kratz, who was across the street when the suspect crashed into his car.
“Went to go check what was going on,” Kratz told KIRO at the scene. “Looks like he climbed out of his vehicle in some high-speed chase, got onto his hood, started to back up his windshield to get like onto his roof.”
“One of the cops jumped up on the tire, grabbed him, pulled him down from his vehicle,” he explained. “Cops swarmed him. Just grabbed him a bunch. No real fighting or anything like that or chance of it escalating.”
No one was hurt during the incident, KIRO reported.
Warsame was booked into the King County Jail and charged with rape, human trafficking, and kidnapping.
The state has asked that he be held on a $750,000 bond this time.
Court records showed that Warsame has 28 prior convictions for crimes that include multiple counts of assault, robbery, theft, and burglary, KIRO reported.
#seattle #washingtonstate ARRESTED longtime career criminal and #trafficker Maygag Warsame of #rentonwa #sextrafficking #enditX #zendaya #euphoria #anguscloud#dojacat #megantheestallion #caradelevingne#kendricklamar #pushat pic.twitter.com/xUAFMc68WZ
— The_Medusa_Project_2022 (@medusa_2022) September 3, 2022
He has been charged in King, Thurston, Kent, Renton, and Tukwila counties.
Warsame was most recently released from custody on July 21 after King County prosecutors said they hadn’t received the evidence in the case on time to proceed with charging Warsame.
Casey McNerthey, from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said he wasn’t blaming police but rather the shortage of law enforcement resources.
McNerthey said he was concerned about community safety with repeat offenders like Warsame being released on a regular basis, KIRO reported.
He called for more police to help prosecutors close criminal cases.
Holly Matkin
