Tumwater man allegedly evades police aboard car without license plates

A Tumwater man who was initially stopped for driving a car without license plates was later arrested by his former corrections officer after allegedly evading police

Randall Taufetee, 33, was arrested on June 28 after an officer noticed a dark blue 2010 BMW 238, without license plates, exiting the Jack in the Box on Trosper Road SW.

The officer stopped the vehicle and spoke with the driver, who was later identified as Taufetee. The suspect said he got the car from a friend. Pressed for further information about the supposed friend, he told the officer, “I don’t know, just a friend.”

Police said the vehicle had not been reported as stolen and was registered to a local owner who did not immediately respond to calls from authorities.

As the officer provided Taufetee’s name to dispatchers via radio, the suspect quickly drove away “at a high speed.”

“I yelled at the driver to stop,” the officer said. “I quickly moved my left foot out from under the vehicle to avoid being hit by the rear passenger tire and possibly being injured.”

Another officer who responded to the incident noted that “the rear of the vehicle would have likely stuck [the first officer] if he hadn’t backed away from the vehicle so quickly.”

Police followed the suspect as he turned southbound onto Tyee Drive SW, but Taufetee continued speeding away.

“It was clear Taufetee had no intention of yielding to my vehicle and was actively attempting to elude me,” an officer wrote. Police then stopped chasing after the suspect.

Minutes later, a third officer located the same dark blue BMW 238 at an apartment complex on the 6600 block of Littlerock Road SW.

Police knocked on the apartment that the car was parked in front of. Officers advised Taufetee five times that he was under arrest and needed to come to the door, but did not receive a response despite the presence of people inside the home.

After ten minutes, a woman who identified herself as the suspect’s girlfriend came to the door and told police that Taufetee was not home.

Police said they explained their earlier encounter with Taufetee to the woman and repeatedly asked her if the suspect was home, but she was evasive.

After about an hour of speaking with the woman, police managed to convince her to get the suspect to come out. Taufetee came to the front door and said he would surrender if he would be allowed to have a cigarette, which the officers granted.

One officer also said Taufetee laughed when he saw him, because the suspect recognized him from a previous encounter at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center almost four years ago.

Taufetee was booked into the Thurston County Jail for eluding a police vehicle and an unrelated felony warrant.