Alleged storage unit burglar caught after pursuit, Taser capture

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The man who allegedly fled from the scene of an elaborate caper to burglarize a storage facility in Chimacum on New Year’s Eve was arrested last week after he again allegedly tried to elude police.

Cordis Earl McBride, 36, of Port Hadlock was captured in the woods along Highway 19 after being shot twice with a Taser electroshock stun gun after running from a traffic stop.

McBride was booked into Jefferson County Jail just before 2 a.m. Jan. 5 and charged with attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. Bail was set at $50,000.

His capture came soon after a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office on patrol in Port Hadlock-Irondale noticed a large vehicle run through a stop sign at Cedar Avenue and Hayden Street.

The deputy followed as the vehicle, a large U-Haul truck with Arizona license plates, turned north onto Irondale Road and twice crossed the centerline into the other lane of traffic.

The truck continued on to Highway 19, and when the deputy tried to pull over the driver near West Patison Street, the driver wouldn’t stop.

The driver sped off at a high rate of speed, according to a probable cause report, but hit a large post and fence farther south on the highway when trying to turn the corner on West Foster Street.

ESCAPE, INTERRUPTED

The base of the post, however, caught the left rear tire of the truck and caused it to stop. 

The driver — later identified as McBride — got out of the truck and the deputy said it appeared like McBride was getting ready to run. 

McBride ignored the deputy’s demands, according to the report, then took off on foot, running into an area near West Foster Street that was filled with trailers, vehicles and garbage.

The fleeing driver jumped a fence and ran into the woods.

The pursuing deputy caught up to McBride as he was stopped by a wall of sticker bushes.

The deputy pulled out his stun gun and McBride pretended to surrender, but then tried to run away. The officer fired his Taser as McBride jumped into the bushes nearby.

The Taser didn’t make a solid connection, and McBride stood up and again tried to run away, according to court documents.

A second shot from the Taser brought the driver down, and McBride was immediately handcuffed.

McBride cursed at the deputy and said he didn’t want to go to prison.

He also said he shouldn’t have ran away from the officer, but knew he had a suspended license “and had too many court cases going already,” the deputy wrote in his report.

McBride was taken to the hospital to be checked out after being Tasered. He allegedly told the deputy that he would have to fight him if he tried to remove him from the patrol car.

The deputy had a nurse talk to McBride through the window of the patrol car, and he again refused medical treatment.

McBride was arrested on potential charges of first-degree driving with a suspended license, resisting arrest and eluding a police vehicle.

MORE CHARGES ADDED

During a court appearance Thursday, prosecutors added six more charges that include multiple burglary charges and allegations of unlawful possession of firearms.

Police linked McBride to three burglaries at Mariner Storage in Chimacum in December — including one early on New Year’s Eve where deputies allegedly interrupted McBride while he was breaking into a unit at the storage facility.

McBride fled in a Toyota from officers who were called to the burglary, driving through the back yards of nearby properties before crashing his car into a chain-link fence and then running off into the woods. Drones and a police dog were brought in to find the fleeing burglar, with no success.

The New Year’s Eve burglary followed two other earlier break-ins at the storage facility by McBride, according to court documents.

Authorities allege that McBride was responsible for a break-in at a unit leased by a Port Townsend woman at the storage facility sometime in early December. 

The woman told police Dec. 16 she had discovered her storage unit had been burglarized; a firearm, a safe containing documents and cash, and other items were stolen. The thief had entered the storage unit by unscrewing the siding.

Another storage unit was burglarized at the same storage facility and was reported by a Port Ludlow man Dec. 26. He also told police the siding on his unit had been unscrewed by a thief, and numerous items were taken.

LIVE-IN TIPSTER

The search for the storage unit burglar Dec. 31 started after the Port Townsend woman who had been robbed in early December called 911 from the storage facility.

She told police she had been living in her storage unit because of the recent break-ins, and called authorities after seeing locks cut off at another unit and seeing a suspicious man nearby.

When deputies arrived, they found the front gate to the storage facility had been padlocked by an intruder.

Deputies found the thief at the back of the business as he was trying to escape in a black sedan. A deputy said the driver came right at him and he had to quickly get out of the way to avoid being hit.

The license plate of the sedan, and other identifying marks, had been covered with blue tape.

The driver kept going, and drove through a neighbor’s back yard and the fence of a horse pasture before finally crashing his vehicle into the fence at Evergreen Storage.

Deputies found footprints on the hood of the car, and it appeared the burglar had jumped up on the vehicle to get over the fence and escape into the woods.

Officers found .44-caliber ammunition in the vehicle and a handgun that was registered to a Kennewick man.

Video at the storage unit facility showed the intruder had used a cutting torch to remove the front-gate chain to the business and the locks on four storage units.

A Facebook post from the sheriff’s office that included a photo of the burglar’s vehicle prompted a tip from the man who was the previous owner of the sedan.

Officers found two handguns after the vehicle was seized; a loaded 9mm Taurus handgun and a .44-caliber magnum revolver.

Detectives found a Bazooker speaker tube and a television in the car that had been stolen
Dec. 31 from two of the units. A cutting torch was also found inside the sedan.

A receipt from QFC found on the floor of the passenger side of the vehicle prompted police to review video from the grocery store, and McBride was seen on the video and immediately recognized by officers who had earlier contacts with him.

Investigators also removed the blue duct tape from the vehicle and found McBride’s fingerprints on both ends, according to court documents.

A search of the U-Haul trailer discovered items that had been stolen in one of the storage unit break-ins, as well as a padlock of the same style as the one used on the gate of the storage business during the Dec. 31 burglary.

A detective later searched the trailer where McBride was living and found items that had been stolen from storage units in Chimacum, as well as tennis shoes that had treads that matched the prints left on the sedan used by the burglar in the Dec. 31 break-in.

The sedan’s previous owner, in an email to a detective Jan. 6, admitted that he had sold the vehicle to McBride.

Detectives tried to speak with McBride Jan. 6, and he allegedly said “he didn’t know anything about a burglary and wanted a lawyer,” according to court documents.

McBride has had legal troubles in the past. He was convicted on two counts of drive-by shooting in 2007.

In his first court appearance Jan. 7, McBride faced nine charges — with seven new ones added since his arrest.

The new charges were two counts of first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon; two counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm; and a charge of second-degree malicious mischief for the damage caused breaking into the Chimacum storage business.

McBride also faces two of the original charges; attempting to elude a police vehicle, and first-degree driving with a suspended license.

REDUCED BAIL SOUGHT

Last week in Jefferson County Superior Court, Nat Jacob, McBride’s court-appointed attorney, asked for bail to be reduced to $20,000.

Jacob said McBride was a local resident and business owner with family ties in Jefferson County.

He also has a drug problem and is very serious about getting treatment, Jacob said.

“He needs help and he wants help for a drug addiction,” Jacob said.

Judge Keith Harper questioned whether bail should remain at $50,000.

McBride was an extreme high risk and danger to the community, the judge said.

The degree and extent of the risk, Harper added, “is about 100 percent higher” than when McBride was first jailed and bail was initially set.

The new charges also stemmed from alleged crimes that appeared to culminate in McBride eluding police.

“And it goes on,” Harper said.

Harper then set bail at $100,000.

McBride will next appear in Jefferson County Superior Court for his arraignment Friday, Jan. 15.