Northwest briefly
Published 10:49 pm Monday, January 18, 2010
Suspect arrested in fatal shooting
FEDERAL WAY — Police have arrested a suspect in a Federal Way shooting that left one man dead and another wounded.
Police spokesman Ray Bunk said Monday a 21-year-old Federal Way man has been booked into the King County Jail for investigation of conspiracy to commit murder. Bunk told KOMO Radio police are looking for two other suspects.
The three men were involved in a fight early Sunday after a large house party. One shooting victim died at the scene. The other was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and is expected to recover.
Seattle: New ferries dubbed Kwa-di Tabil
New 64-car ferries being built for the Washington Transportation Department will be known as the Kwa-di Tabil Class, which means “little boat” in the Quileute language.
The Washington state ferry system conducted a contest to name the new vessel classification among fourth-grade students from Chimacum, Port Townsend and Whidbey Island who are studying Washington state history.
The winning entry was submitted by a fourth-grade class at Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend. The state is building up to four 64-car ferries. The first is scheduled to go into service on the Port Townsend-Keystone run.
Woman’s body found in at marina
Seattle police say the death of a woman whose body was found in the water at a Ballard marina appears to be accidental. Officers were called about 9:30 a.m. Monday to McGinnis Marina on Salmon Bay where the body was under a pier. Police say there was no indication of a crime in the death of the woman who appeared to be in her 40s.
Pierce County: Fire burns thrift store
Firefighters battled a two-alarm fire in a large building in Lakewood for more than five hours Monday.
Lakewood Fire Department Capt. Jenny Sharp said no one was injured. She said the fire was reported at 11:30 a.m. at the building, which houses three businesses, including a thrift store and a tire firm.
Firefighters from Lakewood, Tacoma, University Place and Central Pierce fire departments helped fight the blaze. Sharp said the cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Pasco: Man dies at freight truck firm
The Department of Labor and Industries is investigating how a man was crushed to death at freight trucking business in Pasco. KNDO-KNDU reported 43-year-old Randall Johnston of Kennewick died of injuries suffered Friday when a 500-pound pallet fell on his chest at the Con-Way freight building where he was an employee.
Tacoma: 2-year-old hurt in shooting
Tacoma police hope the parents of a 2-year-old girl wounded in a road-rage shooting can remember details to help them catch the shooter. Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said investigators Monday only know that the suspect fled in a sport utility vehicle, believed to be a black Ford Explorer. The wounded girl was treated at Mary Bridge children’s hospital for a wound in the thigh and is expected to recover.
Fulghum said she had been riding in a back seat car seat in a car driven by her father with her mother in the front passenger seat.
Fulghum said one car cut off another in traffic, hand gestures were exchanged and the driver of the SUV fired into the family’s car. The family had a minor accident driving to a relative’s home to call for help.
Olympia: Man choked to death on tissue paper
An autopsy determined that a man found dead Friday outside a Tumwater residence suffocated on tissue paper stuffed in his mouth.
He’s identified as 55-year-old Gerald Haag of Seattle.
Thurston County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 49-year-old man for investigation of murder.
The sheriff’s office said Michael Kerby of Seattle told the victim’s sister he had killed her brother. Lt. Chris Mealy told The Olympian Kerby is cooperating with investigators.
Alaska: Power restored to tanker; vessel departs
An Exxon tanker that lost power Sunday while leaving Alaska’s Prince William Sound is under way again.
Coast Guard Lt. Herbert Law said the tanker Kodiak departed early Monday from a safe harbor at Knowles Head, where tugboats had towed the 831-foot vessel.
Law saod the Kodiak will head to San Francisco to offload its oil, then go to Seattle for permanent repairs.
The tanker departed from Port Valdez early Sunday morning but lost power when a rear steam generator overheated.
Power was transferred to a forward steam generator with an auxiliary generator as a backup, an arrangement that the Coast Guard approved for the ship to sail. The tanker is carrying about 613,000 barrels, or more than 25 million gallons, of crude oil.
Oregon: Man’s body found in backyard sinkhole
The body of a Portland man was found in a sinkhole partly filled with water in his backyard after a friend called police to say she hadn’t heard from him, authorities said. Michael Zerwas, 57, died of a combination of hypothermia and drowning but survived the initial fall into the hole, according to Dr. Karin Gunson, the state medical examiner.
Officials say the 5-foot wide, 35-feet deep hole opened up over what appeared to be an old brick-lined cistern that may date back nearly a century.
Justin de Ruyter, one of the firefighters called to the scene after police found the body Sunday, said a technical rescue team placed a tripod over the opening and used ropes to pull out Zerwas’ body.
De Ruyter said he used to run across similarly built cisterns while fighting wildland fires on old farmland in eastern Washington.
“I definitely think this was an old cistern,” he said. “Farmers would use them to store water underground and use a windmill or some other pump to water their dairy cows so they didn’t have to take them to a creek.”
Police were called Sunday to check on Zerwas after a friend in the Midwest said she had not heard from him since Thursday.
According to city records, Zerwas’ home was built in 1937.
De Ruyter said that when the land was converted to residential property, cisterns were covered up with boards and dirt, and were typically forgotten.
De Ruyter said he believes Zerwas, a private investigator, was gardening when the ground collapsed.
“It looked he might have fallen backwards out of his shoes,” de Ruyter said. “Once he fell in, the water is 45 to 50 degrees, and there is nothing to grab on to to climb out. It was a freak accident.”
From Herald news services
