Stolen vehicle, death threats led to back-to-back Pasco standoffs a block apart

A Honda stolen from Hermiston, Ore., led police to a standoff outside of a Court Street home Wednesday night.

It started after the car’s owners posted about the stolen vehicle on their Facebook page, and someone told them they had seen a similar car near Pasco High School, Sgt. Rigo Pruneda said.

The owners traveled up to Pasco and searched the area until they found their car parked at 905 Court St. They filmed Emily Amanda Sanchez, 28, get out of the driver’s seat and a unnamed man get out of the passenger’s seat.

The owner called police about 7:45 p.m. and officers watched the video, Pruneda said. They also noticed a second stolen Honda was parked on the property.

Officers knocked on the door, and no one answered, so they applied for a search warrant for the house.

After surrounding the house, police entered the house. Officers used a drone to help search the house, where they discovered Sanchez along with two other people with unrelated warrants, Pasco police said in a Facebook post.

The arrest was only the first of two involving the drone, Pasco police said on Facebook.

As police were dealing with the stolen car, officers were called about a report that a man had showed up at a nearby home with a sawed-off shotgun and threatened to kill someone.

An officer discovered the man had gone to a home about a block away, and began to apply for a search warrant.

The Tri-City Regional SWAT team and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office helped surround the house. Officer Jeff Cobb launched the drone and spotted the man as he tried to run out of the side yard of the home, where officers were waiting to arrest him.

Police did not release the man’s name, but said he was booked into the Franklin County jail.