Toy gun thrown at Parkland coffee shop where officers were killed

PARKLAND — A woman pointed a plastic assault rifle at a barista and then hit her with it Tuesday at the Parkland coffee shop where the four Lakewood officers were shot and killed Nov. 29.

"If we find her, she is going to jail," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said of the woman. "Pointing a gun, even a plastic one, is a felony."

The barista was not one of the workers at the Forza Coffee Shop when the four officers — Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards — were killed.

Still, the incident at the drive-up window frightened the barista, Troyer said.

"She thought she was going to be shot," he said.

He gave this account:

The woman drove up to the drive-up window at the coffee shop at 11401 Steele St. S. at 4:35 a.m. Loud rap music was playing as the vehicle approached.

"When the girl opened the window, the woman mumbled something and pointed an assault-style rifle at her," Troyer said. "The girl thought she was going to be shot."

Then the woman threw the rifle at the girl, hitting her in the chest, before taking off. Workers called 911 and deputies discovered the rifle wasn't real.

The coffee shop has no security camera images of the women or the car.

What prompted the incident is anyone's guess, Troyer said.

"It could have been a robbery," he said. "When the woman mumbled the girl didn't understand her and the woman threw the rifle at her in frustration. It could be someone who's not stable."