Northwest Briefly: Escaped prison inmate nabbed in Reno, Nev.
Published 11:49 pm Tuesday, September 2, 2008
OLYMPIA — The Washington state Department of Corrections said an inmate who escaped from the minimum-security Olympic Corrections Center near Forks has been arrested in Reno, Nev., by U.S. marshals.
The Corrections Department said Michael Johnson, 22, of Vancouver, Wash., was arrested Tuesday at a Greyhound bus station after marshals surrounded the bus he was in.
Johnson missed a Saturday night head count at the prison.
The Corrections Department says three other people have been arrested in Clark County in connection with the escape. Two women are accused of picking up Johnson outside the prison and driving him to Portland, Ore. A man under community supervision was also arrested, accused of contacting a known felon.
Johnson had been at the prison since Aug. 25 on drug and gun convictions.
Spokane: Kevin Coe jailed for hearing
Kevin Coe has been returned to Spokane for a hearing that will determine whether he should be locked up at the Special Commitment Center for sex predators on McNeil Island.
Coe was booked into jail last Friday for a pretrial conference scheduled this Friday.
Coe recently completed a 25-year sentence in the South Hill Rapist case.
Officials are seeking to have him civilly committed because of his risk of reoffending.
Walla Walla: Penitentiary lockdown continues
A spokeswoman for the Washington State Penitentiary says it’s gradually returning to normal after multiple fights Friday night involving about 50 prisoners.
Spokeswoman Joni Aiyeku said two units with nearly 400 inmates remained locked down Tuesday, with prisoners confined to their cells.
One inmate suffered an injury that required surgery and returned from the hospital on Saturday. Two inmates and two staffers had minor injuries.
Aiyeku said tensions between offenders led to the fights in a walkway as they returned from a recreation yard. She said the first lockdown at the prison in about two years would continue until safety is assured.
Tacoma: Two trains strike car; woman dead
A railroad spokesman said a 74-year-old woman died Tuesday after two trains hit her car at a crossing south of Tacoma.
BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas said the woman, whose name was not immediately available, was the only occupant of the car.
Melonas said the car was first hit by a southbound freight train, bound from Everett to Vancouver, Wash. Melonas says the car flipped into the adjacent track and was struck by a northbound Amtrak passenger train, getting pinned under the lead locomotive of the Amtrak.
Melonas says it took 3 1/2 hours to remove the car so the rail lines could be reopened.
Oregon: Deer jumps, hits motorcyclist, dies
A 43-year-old motorcyclist sustained injuries when a deer jumped onto him in southwest Oregon.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said 43-year-old Levi L. Lee of Winston was riding on a rural road in Dillard late Monday when a deer leaped off a bank.
The motorcycle fell over, injuring Lee. He was taken by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, where he was treated and released Tuesday.
The deer died.
Associated Press
