Seattle man, 85, arrested after incident in Bainbridge ferry line

An 85-year-old man from Seattle was arrested at the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal Sunday after allegedly almost hitting a ferry worker with his Porsche SUV and punching a police officer in the face.

He was charged Monday with third-degree assault of an officer, reckless driving and failure to obey traffic control, and booked into the Kitsap County Jail. He was released from custody later that day.

On Sunday, the man was driving up to the ferry terminal, heading to Seattle in an orange 2026 Porsche Macan when he tried to make an illegal right turn into the ferry line from Winslow Way East onto Olympic Drive Southeast, according to court documents.

(The line for the ferry backs up Olympic Drive, so the city puts up signs to prevent line cutting and traffic jams.)

A ferry worker tried to stop the driver by waving him down, but the man did not comply. He allegedly accelerated toward the worker, who pushed off the hood of the car, missing getting hit by inches, according to court documents.

The man then continued into the line, where he waited in traffic just before the toll booths.

Bainbridge Island police officers responded around 4:30 p.m. and located the man in his car after they spoke with the worker. They tried to speak with him, but he waved them off and ignored them, keeping his window rolled up.

An officer told the driver he was not free to leave, and that police were putting down spike strips, according to court documents. They continued to ask him to exit his car. When vehicles ahead of him began to move, the man drove forward, deflating his tires on the spike strips, according to court documents.

At that point, the man had his window down, so an officer opened the car door, which the man tried to hold shut. As the officer tried to turn off the car engine, the man punched the officer in the face and yelled profanities, according to court documents.

The officer pulled the man out of the car and cuffed him. The 85-year-old then became "very cooperative," according to court documents. He told officers that he had no health issues, and responding paramedics didn't find any health concerns that would have affected his driving.

When asked by police why he didn't stop, the man replied that he "shouldn't have to and just wanted to go back home to Seattle, according to the documents.

The Kitsap Sun first reported on the incident.

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