PORT ANGELES — A high-level sex offender was captured on a probable-cause warrant for failing to register after a Saturday morning pursuit that began in Sequim, ended in Discovery Bay and included two alleged carjackings.
Kenneth Scott “Tiny” Johnson, 35, of Sequim was taken into custody after authorities followed him through the city of Sequim and along U.S. Highway 101 before he was taken into custody at 1:42 a.m., Clallam County Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said.
Johnson was armed with a rifle at the beginning of the pursuit — which wasn’t high-speed, authorities said — and had it when he stole the second vehicle but did not have the weapon when he was arrested, Cameron said.
The chase and arrest involved Sequim and Port Angeles police officers and sheriff’s deputies from Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Authorities had been on the lookout for Johnson for two to three weeks when they received a tip Saturday from an acquaintance of Johnson’s that he was in Sequim and traveling in a Subaru.
Johnson, a level three sex offender, had moved from his known address in Sequim without notifying authorities, Cameron said.
Level three sex offenders have “a high risk of re-offense within the community at large,” according to state law.
Johnson has past convictions of first-degree child molestation and third-degree rape of a child.
Johnson was the passenger in the Subaru when a Clallam County deputy stopped it at 1 a.m. in Sequim, Cameron said.
The driver, an acquaintance of Johnson’s who cooperated with authorities, had dropped his keys on the ground and left his door open while being questioned, Cameron said.
Johnson slid over into the driver’s seat, grabbed the keys and took off in the Subaru, Cameron said.
The driver told deputies Johnson had a rifle with the stock sawed off with him in the car.
“Then the chase is on through the greater Sequim area,” Cameron said.
“Then it winds up back in Sequim at the intersection of Maple and Sequim-Dungeness Way.”
Johnson had burned the clutch out of the Subaru, which was getting slower and slower, Cameron said.
At the stop sign of the intersection, Johnson stopped the Subaru behind a Mazda Miata, jumped out and, wielding the rifle, carjacked the Miata, Cameron said.
As the chase proceeded on Highway 101, speeds were not extremely high as Johnson threw things out of the car in an attempt to obstruct pursuing officers, Cameron said.
At two locations near Discovery Bay, Jefferson County deputies set up spike strips that Johnson drove over, but he continued to drive east.
A Port Angeles police officer stopped Johnson using a pursuit intervention technique, or PIT, maneuver in which the officer bumped the rear side of the car, causing it to go into a spin, Cameron said.
“The car spins, and it causes it to stall,” he said.
Johnson was taken into custody and treated at Olympic Medical Center for a cut on his forehead before being booked at 5:11 a.m. into the Clallam County jail.
He is being held without bond on three misdemeanor warrants for failing to appear in court on separate charges, two felony warrants and two felony counts of failing to register as a sex offender.
Further charges related to the theft of the Subaru and carjacking of the Miata while armed, and a charge of felony elude, will be referred to the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Cameron said.
Clallam County sheriff’s deputies had lost track of Johnson on Thursday during a pursuit in the woods off Youngquist Road south of Sequim.
Authorities have previously gotten help in their search for Johnson from television’s “Washington’s Most Wanted”
The TV show, hosted by David Rose on KCPQ channel 13 of Seattle, recently focused on Johnson and offered a cash reward of up to $1,000, depending on whether he had a weapon or drugs on him and charges when found.
Since the tip didn’t come through Crime Stoppers, the person who called to say Johnson was in Sequim will not be eligible for the reward, Cameron said.
Johnson will make his first appearance in Superior Court at 1 p.m. Monday.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
