Tacoma carjacking victims describe scary ordeal

TACOMA, Wash. — Surveillance video shows the moment a brazen carjacking went down last week at a Tacoma gas station.

A man was ordered out of the vehicle at rifle-point.

He and the vehicle’s owner are talking about the scary moment.

This happened so quickly, it took a moment for everyone involved to react.

It is easy to see the crime just before 1 a.m. Sept. 12 at a gas station located at North Alder and North 26th Street in Tacoma.

“I was in the passenger seat,” said Ronald Carpenter, “and I saw someone go walking by and noticed they had their faces covered up. But I thought it was because of the COVID thing.”

Carpenter was waiting outside in his friend Nicole Mabin’s running vehicle while she went inside to buy something.

“I was on my way out,” said Mabin, “and I see this guy approaching the vehicle.”

“I look over,” said Carpenter, “and I see somebody getting into the driver’s seat. And I notice it’s not her.”

“And he had something in his hand,” Mabin said. “And then I turned around and he had a big, what looked like a rifle.”

“And they were smacking the window with a gun,” Carpenter said, “and told me to get out. So, I got out because I wasn’t going to get shot over a vehicle.”

The surveillance video shows him get out then try to stop the crooks. But they sped off.

“That’s when he ran in and told me, ‘They took the car! They took the car!’ " said Mabin.

Tacoma police officer Wendy Haddow praised the couple’s actions.

“The victim did everything correct,” said Haddow. “He stepped out. They called 911.”

Now detectives are looking for the suspects.

“They searched for the vehicle, the area,” she said. “They could not locate it. This car has been listed as stolen.”

Nicole Mabin says now she and her mother are without a vehicle and they desperately need it back.

So, Tacoma police are asking anyone who knows anything about this carjacking to call 911.

They want to catch these men before they do this to anyone else.

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