An Auburn man who’d barriccaded himself in his apartment after allegedly threatening his cross-hall neighbors with a knife finally yielded to pepper spray and surrendered to Auburn Police on Nov. 22.
On Nov. 29, The King County Prosecuting Attorneys Office charged Darith Savann, 41, with one count of felony harassment.
At Savann’s bail hearing a week after the incident, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rick Tucker asked the judge to hold Savann on $30,000 bail.
“There have been no prior bail hearings in this matter, although the court found probable cause,” Tucker told the court, noting that even in custody Savann had refused to come to court on four separate days. “It appears the defendant is suffering a mental health crisis and may be unlikely to be capable of responding to a summons.”
Courts have issued two previous warrants for Savann’s arrest since 2017.
Savann has a prior violent conviction for attempted second-degree assault domestic violencer among other lower-level assaults. Tucker said, asserting that he is likely to commit a violent offense if released.
Here is how events unfolded on Nov. 22, according to the Auburn Police Department’s Certification of Determination of Probable Cause, which forms the basis for the case against Savann.
Court papers allege that just before the barricade situation at the apartment house at 12722 Southeast 312th St,, Savann had held a knife toward a woman and her family on a landing from about 4 feet away, and his words or conduct gave them reasonable fear that he would carry it out. He then retreted into his apartment.
When Auburn Police officers responded to the woman’s 911 call, they knocked on Savann’s front door, according to the police write up, and he screamed at them, told them he would cut them and refused to come out.
Given the developing, barricaded-suspect situation, police called in a SWAT team and a hostage negotiation team. While this was underway, according to the police write up, Savann could seen through an open window in the back bedroom, holding two knives as he shadow-boxed and screamed that he would harm police if they entered.
After a judge signed a search warrant allowing police to introduce pepper spray into Savann’s apartment, according to the write up, he complied with police demands to surrender by dropping his knife and walking out of his apartment. When police searched, according to the write up, they found a pocket knife on him.
According to the write-up, the woman told police that Savann had been more aggressive in the weeks prior to Nov. 22, and said she believed he would hurt someone if he did not get help. According to the write-up, the woman told police that four days before the above incident, Savann threatened to burn people and blocked her daughter’s path to their apartment.
