Officer of the Month: WMW-watching cop catches fugitives

LAKEWOOD -- Lakewood police Det. Ryan Larson is being honored for catching three Washington's Most Wanted fugitives in one week -- a WMW arrest record for a single officer who definitely goes above and beyond every day. "I have to say a little bit of luck played into it," Larson said. "Friday night my daughter and I were watching your show at about 10:30 p.m. and then Saturday, I was out running some errands in the Tacoma-Lakewood area, and sure enough two of the people I'd seen the night before almost run out in front of my car." "I honestly had to do a double take and thank God for some bushy eyebrows, I recognized one of them along with his girlfriend." After spotting them, Larson called the on-duty sergeant, who pulled up the photos on the WMW website and emailed Larson to confirm it was them. "Right away after they got arrested, I sent my daughter a text immediately. I think she was probably at basketball practice or something. She was probably more excited then I was because we had just seen them," Larson said. A few days later, Larson had his third capture -- WMW fugitive Dominic Johnson, who was wanted for two counts of domestic violence. "It was actually a great example of some work that the Lakewood police has been able to do thanks to partnership and some task forces we built with the FBI, ATF, DEA and particularly with Homeland Security Investigations. Because of the partnerships and task forces, we've been able to go after some really bad people doing some really bad things," Larson said. Lakewood assistant chief Mike Zaro said that Larson is an officer who is vigilant on- or off-duty. "Ryan is just one of those guys who just has a nose for getting into the dirt and finding the bad guys and in this case, it paid off while he was off on his own time and you just can't say enough about that kind of dedication and vigilance to be doing something as simple as pumping gas and noticing people around you and noticing people that are wanted by the law it's an incredible example of his vigilance and dedication to the job," Zaro said.