KENT—
Each month, Washington's Most Wanted honors a member of law enforcement for doing an exceptional job, and this month, that award goes to Kent Police Officer David Beerbower.Because of his attention to detail, the suspect known as the "River Rat Bandit", and his alleged accomplice are behind bars.
From late July until early this month, detectives say the man known as the "River Rat Bandit" - because he's hit on both sides of the Columbia - robbed at least 18 banks and check cashing businesses in Washington and Oregon, and he might have kept on going if not for the fine work of Ofc. David Beerbower.
"If you go to the crime scene and there's the possibility to lift prints, you lift prints."
Ofc. Beerbower was helping another investigator after a robbery at the Advance America check cashing business in Kent, when he was asked to search for fingerprints.
He took a look at the surveillance video. "I took and I reviewed the video, and I noticed that the suspect had placed his hand on one of the dividers between each one of the booths for the check cashing company."
That video allowed Ofc. Beerbower to pinpoint exactly what the suspect touched. "He placed his hands in a couple different locations, but most of them were granulated so I wasn't able to lift fingerprints from it. In this situation, he actually placed his hand on a calendar and it was a smooth surface so I was able to lift a print from it."
Investigators ran the print and got a match to 32 year old Alexey Perez-Hernandez, now being held in Pierce County on a $5 million bail.
Portland police also arrested an accused accomplice, Travis Oles, who's suspected of being the mastermind behind the huge rash of robberies.
Ofc. Beerbower's supervisor, Lt. Rafael Padilla said the arrest was typical of the cooperation between law enforcement agencies in our region. "It was Officer Beerbower's work that led to the identity of the suspect, but there were a lot of agencies in finding him and eventually bringing him to justice."
In fact, other agencies like Puyallup police join us in recognizing Ofc. Beerbower, a former marine who's been on the Kent police force for a little more than a year.
Congratulations to Officer Beerbower, our October Officer of The Month, on his excellent work at solving a major case.
