An armed man was forcibly subdued in the lobby of a downtown hotel this weekend after an alarmed ex-girlfriend alerted staff that the man had a gun and intended to use it. The altercation, which involved as many as four employees, escalated into a full-fledged wrestling match as the suspect became violent and refused to hand the firearm over.

Seattle Police responded relatively quickly and relieved the hotel staff of the suspect, whom they had pinned on the floor. Upon searching a backpack the suspect had strapped to his body, SPD found a glock 9mm and a substantial amount of cash. SPD learned the suspect was a guest in the hotel visiting from San Diego and recovered a good-sized rock of crack cocaine from his room.

Seattlest was knee deep in the melee and will vouch for the amazing strength crack can give a single, determined man against a team of several others, scared shitless. The sweaty altercation fortunately didn’t result in any serious injuries but gives us pause. Is there any service industry job worth dying for, and why is it every fucking crackhead has a gun?

*Note to cracked-out ex-boyfriends on the verge of a meltdown: it’s probably a lot harder to get into the afterlife of choice with a murder/suicide/lobby massacre on your record than if you had just sought professional help or decided not to take your pain out on others. We didn’t piss a journalism degree away just so we could get recklessly shot up paying the bills at some menial job. Thanks for the story, but next time work your problems out before they boil over.

If you've had a "run in" with someone special, you can track them via the King County Inmate Lookup.

Photograph courtesy of Seattletim from the Seattlest Flickr Pool