The following was written from information in an official Sumner Police Department report. Crimes stated herein are alleged, and all suspects and arrested persons in this article are presumed innocent until determined otherwise by due process in a court of law.

A man who rammed his truck into the gate of Sumner’s wastewater treatment plant and was later apprehended by city police in the middle of state Route 410—on foot—claimed he was high on P2P and trying to escape an unnamed pursuer.

Shaun Whatley allegedly rammed a green Ford F150 into the gates of Sumner’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, then attempted to ram his way out again.

Police responding to a burglary call the morning of Nov. 10 and found the truck abandoned inside the facility gates with severe damage to its front end. A scan of the front license plate revealed the vehicle was registered to a Troy Moser of Tacoma.

Surveillance cameras in the facility were not functioning correctly, preventing officers from taking video evidence of the crime.

Officer Jeff Miller left Moser a voice mail, then proceeded to search the cab of the truck, with Officer Jeff Engel, for items that could identify the driver. They found bags of marijuana, some cash, a 14-inch knife and a .38 caliber revolver chambered with a single round. Engel also located several documents printed with the surnames Bernal, Whatley and O’Connor.

A cell phone inside the cab rang, and Miller answered. It was a woman calling for “Lita”; short for Clarita. Though the caller seemed reluctant to speak to police, Miller learned that Lita was traveling with a white male from Vancouver to Puyallup.

Officers located a cosmetics bag with the name Lita written on its outside.

The vehicle was towed from the scene.

Engel found a number in the cell phone’s phonebook listed as Clarita Terla, and called it. Terla answered. She told Engel she had been with Whatley in Vancouver on Nov. 9, and that he had dropped her off in Tacoma in a green pick-up truck.

Engel was able to call up a booking photo of Whatley, and confirmed that there were medical documents in his name and a cell phone belonging to him in the vehicle.

A few hours later, Miller and Officer Matt Eller were dispatched to a suspicious person call on Mountain Circle Drive. The caller reported a suspicious white male in a brown hoodie walking through residential yards carrying a backpack; the man had also been seen by the caller in the area earlier that morning.

A parking enforcement officer in the area told the arriving police that he had seen the man leave the street and walk toward the train tracks.

Miller and Eller drove to Traffic Avenue and spotted the man sitting near the train tracks with a backpack. Upon exiting the vehicle and walking to the spot on foot, they found he had disappeared.

As they checked nearby hiding places, Eller spotted the man running west toward Traffic Avenue. Eller pursued on foot. The man ran onto state Route 410 into traffic, but he was caught in the center of the highway and taken into custody.

The man first told Miller his name was Michael R. Griffin, along with a birthdate. That combination turned up no records. The man gave several other dates of birth, claiming he was so high on P2P—phenyl-2-propanone, a precursor chemical sometimes used in the manufacture of methamphetamine without pseudoephedrine—he could not remember the day he was born.

Miller wrote in his report that he realized they were close to the Wastewater Treatment Plant and asked the man if he was Shaun Whatley. Whatley confirmed his identity.

Miller mirandized Whatley, and Whatley waived his rights, choosing to talk about the incident.

Whatley said he was extremely high on P2P and someone was chasing him from Fife. In an attempt to evade pursuit, he drove toward Sumner. He said he did not recognize his surroundings and crashed through the gate of the plant. He attempted to ram his way out another gate when the truck became disabled and he fled on foot.

He had been wandering town for a week waiting for someone to pick him up, he said.

Miller told Whatley it had only been a few hours since the burglary call, a fact to which Whatley responded with surprise. He did not know what day it was, he said.

Whatley also told Miller that Terla was in the truck with him when he crashed the gates, and that he did not know where she went.

A search uncovered a 20+ gram bag of marijuana in Whatley’s possession. He was transported to Pierce County Jail on charges of Burglary in the Second Degree, Malicious Mischief in the Second Degree, and Possession of Marijuana (Less than 40 grams).

Whatley has been charged in Pierce County Superior Court with one count of Being a Fugitive From Justice. He was arraigned Monday and is scheduled to return to court Dec. 12.