Mom’s whispered call from a restroom leads to kidnap suspect chase in Eastern WA, Oregon
A felon is now facing second-degree kidnapping charges days after a woman made a whispered call from the restroom of the Circle K on Highway 12 between Pasco and Wallula Junction.
The woman called 911 at 10 p.m. Monday, describing a domestic problem with her boyfriend Stephan Lee Cleveland, 26, of Walla Walla. He had a Washington state Department of Corrections warrant for escaping from community custody.
When a Walla Walla County Sheriff’s deputy and Washington State Patrol trooper arrived, the woman got out of a Honda CRV she was driving and said Cleveland was hiding in the back.
Deputies ordered him to get out, but instead he climbed into the driver’s seat and drove off with the woman’s 3-year-old son in the car, according to the sheriff’s office.
WSP troopers chased him on the grounds of the suspected kidnapping. Cleveland drove south on Highway 730 from the Wallula Junction but after he crossed into Oregon, the Oregon State Police were able to stop him with a spike strip east of Umatilla.
The boy was rescued unharmed, but Cleveland ran into a Umatilla neighborhood and officers were unable to find him, even with the help of a police dog.
On Friday, the Walla Walla Police Department learned that Cleveland might be staying in a trailer that a detective had under surveillance on Stateline Road in Walla Walla County.
When Cleveland came outside, the SWAT team were called. But Cleveland sped off in a car, driving through a fence to avoid the arriving officers.
He drove at high speeds into Oregon and then back into Washington before he crashed on Peppers Bridge Road south of Walla Walla and ran. Hours later law enforcement found him barricaded inside a trailer, said officials.
Cleveland and another man in the trailer, Clarence George Gunter, 42, of Walla Walla, were taken to the Walla Walla County Jail.
Gunter is being held on felony fugitive charges, and Cleveland is being held on suspicion on second-degree kidnapping charges and taking a car without permission, in addition to his Washington warrant.
