UPDATE: Sex offender fugitive caught after being shot at in Pasco

Police and federal agents captured a fugitive who tried to run over officers in Pasco as he was escaping early Friday.

Members of the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force were looking for Anthony M. Paladin, 31, when they surrounded a home on the 5600 block of Topeka Drive shortly after midnight.

When they closed in to arrest him, Paladin jumped into a car and rammed into law enforcement cars before aiming at the officers, said the U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement Friday afternoon.

“A task force officer, fearing for the safety of himself and others, fired into the vehicle at Paladin,” said the statement.

No officers were hurt and Paladin managed to escape. It’s not known if he was wounded.

Paladin, a registered sex offender, was wanted by the Department of Corrections because he escaped from community custody and failed to register. He’s considered a violent offender, said the agency.

His car was reportedly found empty later on Cottonwood Drive in Richland.

A Topeka Drive resident told the Herald that police came to his home to make sure no one was hurt and to take statements about what they saw or heard.

The U.S. Marshals Service is responsible for protecting federal witnesses, transporting federal prisoners and arresting state and federal fugitives. The task force includes federal, state and local law enforcement officers from Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

It’s unclear which agencies were involved in the Pasco incident. A Pasco police spokesman said they were not involved in the shooting but the Marshals Service said Pasco is investigating if proper procedures were followed.

About 3 p.m. Friday, officers with guns drawn searched a home on the 2400 block of Cottonwood Dr., just south of Van Giesen Street. They also were talking with neighbors in the area, though no information was released about the search.

Police caught up with him Friday night inside a home on the 2000 block of George Washington Way.

“The residence was surrounded by numerous law enforcement agencies,” U.S. Marshals said. “Paladin realizing he had no opporutnity to get away gave up and was taken into custody without further incident.”

He was booked into the Franklin County jail.

This story was originally published December 21, 2018 at 11:50 AM.