Bellingham Man Attacks Anacortes Police Officer

Anacortes, Washington – On Friday, July 22nd, 2016 around 12:30 pm an Anacortes Police Officer was patrolling the Gravel Parking Access of Heart Lake in Anacortes.The Officer note a red Toyota Corolla with a man standing in front of it and ran a routine check of the license plate, which came back stolen out of Anacortes.

The Officer exited his fully marked  patrol vehicle and approached the man, later identified as Cody Adam Tyler Baker (05-06-1989) of Holly Street in Bellingham. As the Officer questioned the man about the vehicle, he took off running from the Officer.

The Officer gave chase and grabbed onto the suspect and they fell to the ground.  The suspect began yelling at the Officer “you are going to have to kill me!” and he attempted to grab the Officers gun.   The Officer tasered the man, which had little to no effect on him.  The suspect then pulled a large utility knife from his pocket and extended the retractable blade with his thumb and attempted to stab the Officer.

The Officer pushed away from the suspect and drew his handgun and the suspect fled into the Heart Lake Hiking Trails.  The Officer received bumps, bruises, scratches and a knot on his forehead during the altercation.

Multiple Officers from several different agencies responded to the area to search for the suspect including two Police K-9’s.

Approximately two hours later, the suspect was found in a wooded field on 37th Street, about a mile and a half from where he was last seen.  Once the suspect realized he had been found, he climbed about 80 feet into a tree.

The suspect finally came down from the tree without incident  after more then a seven hour standoff  with a team of crisis negotiators.

Officers confirmed the plates were stolen from a 2003 Toyota Camry in Anacortes and the vehicle, a 2004 Toyota Camry had been reported stolen out of Bellingham. Mr. Baker is a convicted Felon with a 2015 conviction for Theft in the 2nd degree out of Whatcom County Superior Court.

He was arrested and booked into the Skagit County Jail and is currently  being held in lieu of $50,000 bail for 1st Degree Assault, 2nd degree Assault with a weapon, Possession of a stolen vehicle and Possession of stolen property.