Yakima P.D. Captain Reacts To Crowd Bad Behavior During Standoff

Last week there was an incident in the parking lot of the Home Depot store in Yakima. Police were called to the scene because of a person armed with a machete that seemed agitated was deemed a threat to others in the area.  We posted details here.

The effort to calm the suspect lasted several hours and drew many law enforcement officers and ultimately what was described as a crowd of about 100 people including families with children.

Police protocol in such circumstances is for the officers involved to take lots of time, proceed slowly without raising the anxiety of the suspect in an attempt to diffuse the situation and to take the suspect into custody without incident, which is what the police did.  The suspect was allegedly under the influence of drugs and was taken to the hospital for medical help before being booked into jail.

During the period of stand down or show down if you will, some members of the crowd were heard to taunt and to yell out incitements for some kind of action that could have lead to police having to use deadly force.

It's the kind of behavior you might expect to see in any of our larger urban centers around the country where respect for police and policing efforts are often met with insults, profanity and in even obstruction in some instances.

Yakima Police Captain Jay Seely was disappointed in the crowds reaction and hopes it was an outlier experience and not something we can expect to see in Yakima in the future.