2 Arrested After 'Armed Takeover' Of Parkland Pot Shop

PARKLAND, WA — Two men have been arrested, accused of an armed robbery of a Parkland marijuana shop early Monday morning.

According to the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, 911 dispatchers received a call just after 9 a.m. warning them that two armed men had robbed the Green Collar Cannabis on Pacific Avenue S.

Witnesses told deputies the two men had stormed into the business, disarmed an employee, and then forced the staff to hand over a large amount of cash at gunpoint.

At some point during the robbery, the gunmen reportedly fired off several shots, but no one was hit.

After gathering the cash, the suspects ran outside the building to a rented getaway car, only to realize they had dropped their keys inside the store. Instead of trying to recover the keys, they chose to take off on foot into a nearby neighborhood.

The sheriff's department says they sent "numerous" deputies to search the surrounding area, combing through residential streets and patches of woodland. At 9:09 a.m., just six minutes after the first 911 call, deputies captured their first suspect. Nearby they say they found several guns and the stolen cash stashed in a nearby trash can. The second suspect was found slightly farther away, near the intersection of 104th and 106th Streets S.

The first suspect, identified only as a 39-year-old man, has been booked into the Pierce County Jail on charges of first degree robbery. The second suspect, 26, will be booked on the same charges.