PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man wanted since Wednesday evening for first-degree robbery when a purse-snatching ended in a woman’s injury turned himself in after a police manhunt and foot pursuit failed to catch him.
Police say Michael Thomas Riley, 25, took a woman’s purse as she was loading groceries into her car in the Port Angeles Walmart parking lot at about 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The owner of the purse, a 30-year-old woman, was cut and bruised after she chased down the man who had grabbed it, said Detective Sgt. John Keegan with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
She ran after him as he headed for his pickup truck and tried to slam his arm in the door as he was getting in, Keegan said.
She hung onto the steering wheel for a while as he drove away.
Her injuries made the crime more serious, Kee-gan said.
“That elevated the crime to robbery,” he said.
Police identified Riley after an investigation and began searching for him.
The search continued Thursday, when Riley led police and deputies on a foot chase near 12th and Laurel streets at about 10:30 p.m., said Brian Smith, deputy police chief.
Smith said a police dog and some deputies were within arm’s reach of Riley at times until he scrambled over a 3-foot fence and was lost to his pursuers.
Several police cars were positioned at intersections in the surrounding neighborhood for at least an hour and a half while law enforcement searched for him, Smith said.
Deputies had been speaking with Riley’s family and ultimately convinced him to turn himself in at the county courthouse at about 6:30 p.m. Friday.
“He was taken into custody without incident,” Keegan said.
Riley was in the Clallam County jail Saturday morning with no bond yet set after being booked Friday for investigation of one count each of first-degree robbery and forgery and an outstanding arrest warrant.
The purse theft last week is one of at least three Riley is suspected to have committed in the past month, according to Clallam County Superior Court records and law enforcement officials.
The warrant against Riley stems from his allegedly stealing a woman’s purse from her shopping cart in the U.S. Highway 101 Safeway on Oct. 3 and running out of the store, according to Superior Court records.
Riley pleaded not guilty to one count each of second-degree and third-degree theft in this case Oct. 16. He had been released from jail on his own recognizance Oct. 14.
He was scheduled to appear in Superior Court on Thursday but didn’t show, triggering the arrest warrant, authorities said.
During the investigation into the Walmart purse theft, Keegan said deputies received word from Sequim police of a man matching Riley’s description and driving a similar vehicle who had stolen a 58-year-old woman’s purse at the Sequim Walmart about an hour earlier.
Keegan said Riley tried to cash a check stolen from the 30-year-old woman’s purse at a Port Angeles convenience store and deputies finding a truck thought to have been used in both purse thefts helped lead investigators to him.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
