1 kidnap suspect considered armed and dangerous is arrested in Pasco. 2nd on the run
Officers arrested one of two suspects in an armed kidnapping in Kennewick after a brief chase in Pasco on Tuesday.
Detectives has been searching for Darren Birden, 55, since Dec. 17 when he and Leah Graham, 34, allegedly forced a man at gunpoint to leave his home with them.
Birden and Graham are charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery in Benton County Superior Court. Nationwide arrest warrants for $250,000 were issued for both.
Pasco police received a tip that led them to an apartment on the 1600 block of Road 30, where detectives, along with Metro Drug Task Force detectives and Kennewick officers approached Birden when he was outside allegedly making a drug deal, said Kennewick Commander Isaac Merkl.
He ran from officers back into an apartment, tossing a bag that was believed to contain cocaine on the ground, Merkl said.
Members of the Tri-City Regional SWAT team helped surround the apartment and tried to contact him. After 15 minutes, Birden came outside and was arrested.
Graham remains on the loose, Kennewick police consider her armed and dangerous, and ask anyone who know where she is to call 911.
Anonymous tips can be sent to kpdtips.com.
Kidnapping report
On Dec. 17, a man told police he was sleeping on a couch at a home on the 2800 block of 24th Avenue when he woke up to Birden jamming a silver, semi-automatic handgun in his face.
Birden and Graham accused him of stealing a car and said they were taking him to Finley to shoot and torture him, said court documents.
They allegedly forced him to empty his pockets and leave the house. “They took me out to the vehicles and they wouldn’t even let me put shoes on,” he told investigators according to court records.
He was forced into the back of a GMC Sierra pickup truck between Graham and another man. Another man was in the front passenger seat.
Graham allegedly hit him with the pistol several times demanding the vehicle, even after he told them he didn’t know what they were talking about.
When they stopped at a South Reed Street home, Graham and Birden got out. He told the other men in the car he was going to go to the bathroom. He grabbed the door handle and fell out of the pickup.
He was barefoot but started to run and yell for help. Several people heard him and called 911.
Police found him with bloody feet in the area of South Reed Street.