Olympia man allegedly steals car, crashes, walks away

An Olympia man has been charged after allegedly stealing a car, crashing it, fleeing the scene of the collision and later giving police a fake name.

Christopher Daniel Berry, 32, was arrested on May 1 after a reported hit and run at the intersection of State Avenue and Puget Street.

Prior to this, a man reported that his car, a black Nissan Altima, was stolen from the parking lot of the IHOP restaurant on Martin Way. This was the car allegedly being driven by Berry.

One witness wrote that she was stopped at the red light on Puget Street when she “realized [the] car in [the] lane next to me was driving through the red light and there was a car coming through the intersection on the green light. They crashed.”

“Driver got out of the car going through the red light and walked away down State [Street] toward downtown,” the witness added.

Another witness stated that a black Nissan Altima came through the intersection “at a high rate of speed and crashed into the side of the Corolla.”

“The occupant of the Nissan exited the vehicle after the accident shouting obscenities then left the accident on foot,” the statement read.

Police located the suspect in the car crash, later identified as Berry, thanks to a reporting party who trailed him after he fled the scene.

Berry repeatedly told officers that his name was Danyul or Danyal Mallgroom and had a birthdate of July 25, 1993, but police were unable to find any records under this identity.

The suspect claimed that he does not drive and that he was walking home from McMenamin’s Spar Café when the crash occurred. He was unable to provide a receipt or price for his lunch. Police also noted that he did not have a wallet or any form of identification with him.

Berry was booked into the Thurston County Jail for possession of a stolen vehicle, making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, and hit and run. The suspect only provided his real name en route to jail.