Suspect who stole car, shot at police during standoff sentenced to 50 years

A Kitsap Superior Court judge sentenced a man to 50 years in prison for felony charges that include assaulting a woman in a WalMart store, stealing a car at gunpoint and shooting at police officers during a pursuit that ended with a house in West Bremerton going up in flames in July 2022.

David Alexander Knox, now 35, pleaded guilty to nine felony charges in January and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Tina Robinson on April 15. The sentence was issued after a unique courtroom scene during which Kitsap County prosecutors played a 55-minute video that compiled footage from several locations, including security cameras and body camera footage from law enforcement, taken on July 22 and 24, 2022, highlighting the range of crimes committed and victims affected by Knox's actions over the course of two days.

"We felt like it was important for the judge to get a sense of the magnitude of what happened," Kitsap County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Anna Aruiza told the Kitsap Sun. The video presented in court, which began at the Port Orchard WalMart and continued with an interaction just off Highway 3 and continued to when police tracked Knox's to a home in Bremerton's West Hills neighborhood, was comprised of more than 60 hours of video evidence used in prosecuting the case, Aruiza said.

"We don't (usually) see a lot of the background, we just get the reports," Aruiza said of the effort to edit together the lengthy video that illustrated the events leading to Knox's arrest. "It's an interesting perspective, for sure."

More: Attempted murder charges for man accused of shooting at police, carjacking

Knox, who had been released from prison in June 2021 for gun and other crimes, was initially sought after a reported assault at the Port Orchard Walmart on Friday, July 22, 2024. Knox’s then girlfriend had told Port Orchard police that Knox assaulted her after accusing her of stealing $50 from him, and a confrontation between the two when the woman was thrown to the ground and left with bloody injuries was shown on the video, occurring inside the store's aisles and again in the store parking lot.

Two days later, that Sunday, a Bremerton police officer saw Knox just before 2 p.m. and the suspect then drove through a West Bremerton intersection without stopping and drove on a street's shoulder to elude the officer. A second officer observed Knox drive onto Highway 3 from the Loxie Eagans Boulevard interchange and a third pursued Knox northbound on highway. Knox exited at Austin Drive and crashed his vehicle, left that car with a rifle and fired at the officers, according to the charging documents. He then stopped an unrelated vehicle carrying three people, and fired the gun in the air while demanding the three leave the car, which he then took. Knox's previous felony convictions, including drive-by shooting and first-degree robbery, prohibited him from possessing firearms.

A passenger in the car that was stolen left her phone inside the car, and a tracking app on the phone led law enforcement to a home on Harlow Drive. Officers from several agencies surrounded the Harlow Drive address, which was shown from several angles in the courtroom video, including a drone that flew above the house where Knox was suspected to be inside. Officers reported hearing shots fired at them again, according to court documents, which Knox later confirmed to investigator to have shot. The drone video showed thick smoke coming from a second-story window, and two hours later the Harlow Drive home was engulfed in flames. Knox left the home around 6:30 p.m. and managed to get to a vehicle, fled the scene and then wrecked the car nearby on a dead-end street, and he was taken into custody.

"In my 27-year career, incidents like these have been rare, if not virtually unheard of," Lt. Aaron Elton of the Bremerton Police Department wrote in a statement that was included in the court filing. "The brazenness of the suspect... firing upon officers and hijacking a vehicle at gunpoint, followed by a relentless spree of violence spanning hours, is unprecedented. Not only did he imperil the lives of law enforcement, but he callously endangered innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire at different scenes."

In his statement Elton pointed out that one of the officers who Knox is suspected to have taken a shot at had been shot in the line of duty five years earlier. That officer described in a victim's statement the sound of bullets hitting the dirt around him and seeing Knox's weapon aimed directly at him, and expressed worry that his police dog inside the car could have been hit.

Knox had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges that included robbery, assault, attempting to elude, unlawful firearm possession and two counts of attempted murder for firing at law enforcement. Knox changed his plea to guilty in January and Robinson imposed the 600-month sentence, including 120 months for firearm enhancements. Knox also received 36 months of community custody supervision after his release.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Carjacking suspect who shot at police sentenced to 50 years