Two people accused of trying to kill a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy were arrested Wednesday near the Seattle airport with a Subaru Legacy stolen from the murdered wife of a contract examiner with the Idaho Department of Insurance.

Darnell Washington, 24, and his wife, Tania Washington, 25, were booked into the King County Jail on Wednesday after fleeing a police officer who spotted the Subaru with Ada County license plates south of Seattle just before 9 a.m.

The Washingtons rammed the officer’s car as they sped away before police cars were able to box them in near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and order them out of the car at gunpoint, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives from Hercules, Calif., are traveling to Seattle to speak to the Washingtons about their possible involvement in the slaying of Susie Ko, 55, a part-time Boise resident found dead in her Bay Area home Friday night, said Connie Van Putten, spokeswoman for the Hercules Police Department.

Ko’s neighbor found her dead of stab wounds and blunt force head trauma after her husband, Kelvin Ko, called to say that Susie hadn’t picked him up at the airport after a flight from Boise.

The couple had been dividing their time between residences in Boise and Hercules, a small town about 20 miles east of San Francisco, since Kelvin Ko began working as a contract insurance examiner in Idaho in 2006.

Susie Ko was a retired schoolteacher. She and her husband have four children.

Police say Tania Washington helped Darnell Washington escape from the San Bernardino County Jail on Aug. 28. He was being held on robbery and stolen property charges.

Authorities say Darnell Washington shot a Los Angeles County deputy on Sept. 2 after the deputy approached a suspicious vehicle in the city of South El Monte. The deputy, who officials say also fired shots, was treated and released from a hospital.

The Washingtons fled South El Monte after stealing a vehicle, then abandoned it in the city of South Gate and carjacked a 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager, officials said. Police say they found a shotgun in Ko’s Subaru that might be linked to the South El Monte shootout with the deputy.

Meghann M. Cuniff: 377-6418