PORT ANGELES – Two people have been arrested after a traffic collision and abandonment of two small children east of Port Angeles.
25-year-old Lathina Swagerty and 32-year-old Cody Runnion were taken into custody early Saturday morning.
The case began about 12:30 Friday afternoon with a collision in the 300 block of Deer Park Road. Clallam County sheriff’s deputies were notified that a male driver fled the scene of the collision after a 2007 Dodge Caravan he was driving crashed into a parked truck with enough force to rotate the truck 90 degrees in a residential driveway. Two juvenile males, ages 2 years old and 1 year old, were found abandoned in the crashed van.
The children were released to Swagerty, their mother, after she arrived at the hospital a short time later. Swagerty told deputies that the male driving the van was a friend who lives in Tacoma. Investigators say that was a lie.
Meantime, witnesses who heard the crash described a long-haired man running from the area of the collision. He was seen throwing a handgun into a dumpster. Deputies recovered a firearm from the dumpster. A neighbor provided a home surveillance video showing the man running from the area of the collision.
As deputies continued their investigation, they developed Runnion as a person of interest based on items found in the van. Investigators say Runnion was not the individual that Swagerty had previously named as being the driver of the vehicle, but matched the description witnesses provided and matched the surveillance video.
Early Saturday morning deputies tracked Swagerty and Runnion to a local motel. Deputies spoke to Swagerty who told them Runnion was not in the motel room. Shortly thereafter Runion was caught trying to flee out of the back of the motel room.
Runnion was arrested for hit and run, abandonment of a dependent person, and unlawful possession of a firearm 1st degree. Swagerty was arrested for making false statements to law enforcement and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
The children, who were not injured in the crash, were later found staying with Swaggerty’s friends and were taken into protective custody.