Edmonds neighborhood on edge after charges reduced for alleged criminals

EDMONDS, Wash. — Charges have been reduced against two people who allegedly hid out in an Edmonds home to avoid arrest. This came after an entire neighborhood was terrified Saturday night.

After the charges were dropped, the suspects were released on their own recognizance.

Neighbors are not happy about this. KIRO 7 talked to a man who said his entire family hid for hours after Edmonds police blocked off their neighborhood.

“They had like a voice recording going over and over,” said Jordan Westmorland who was at home with his family when it all went down. “Basically saying ‘You’re under arrest for the burglary of this home. Please come out with your hands up.’ And this kept going on for about two and a half hours.”

He said it was alarming.

“My mom got really spooked,” Westmorland said. “She was like ‘The street is blocked off. Everyone bunker down.’ And so we were freaking out.”

A neighbor’s ring camera recorded the hours-long standoff. It started when the car the suspects were in pinged as having been stolen out of Tacoma. 

The trio then broke into the back of a house seeking refuge. The homeowner ran out of the front. 

After a while, two suspects surrendered, but a third managed somehow to escape.

A 45-year-old grandmother was in court Monday afternoon. But before Tanya Hernandez’s public defender attorney could ask, the Snohomish County senior deputy prosecutor dropped the felony charge of burglary to first-degree trespassing, a misdemeanor. She said that is because they didn’t intend to burglarize the house, just to hide in it.

“Wow,” said Westmorland. “That’s not good.”

That news is not sitting well in the still frightened neighborhood.

“I’ve been sleeping with my golf club ever since,” he said.

Perhaps with good reason.

Once the charges were reduced, both Hernandez and her alleged accomplice, 28-year-old Jordin Maldonado, were released until their next court date.

Edmonds police say they have identified the third suspect, a 29-year-old female from Lakewood.

And they are looking for her.

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