On Thursday, April 16th, Tukwila Police arrested a man who refused to identify himself. Unable to verify the man’s identity, the Tukwila officer fingerprinted the suspect using a high-tech device called “Livescan” and the man’s prints were immediately sent to the AFIS Section’s Tenprint Unit, operated by the King County Sheriff’s Office.

By using King County’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the arresting officer was able to identify and capture Terrell C. Yharbrough, age 22, a Michigan man wanted on two murder charges, attempted murder, armed robbery, home invasion, felony firearm violations, and assault with intent to commit murder.

When the AFIS technician, Eva Hess, didn’t get a local hit, she electronically searched fingerprints in the Western Identification Network, which includes fingerprints taken in eight western states. No luck.

Next, the fingerprints were faxed to the FBI in Washington DC. A short time later the FBI was able to identify the man, who was wanted for numerous crimes in Detroit. Hess subsequently received excited phone calls from a Detroit FBI agent and a Detroit PD detective. They had been working the murder cases for over a year.

AFIS is a levy-funded service that provides computer analysis and matching of fingerprints taken from individuals booked into jail and latent prints from crime scenes.

AFIS identifies criminals booked into jail on an alias who would otherwise be released before their fingerprints could be matched with their true identity.

Yharbrough remains in the King County Jail awaiting extradition to Michigan.