Herald worker hurt when deer runs into truck

SNOHOMISH — An Arlington man who was injured when his pickup hit a deer on U.S. 2 was upgraded Wednesday to satisfactory condition.

Randi Knaus, 47, was westbound on the highway at about milepost 8, just west of 88th Street SE, near Snohomish shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday when a deer leaped onto the road and his pickup hit the deer, State Patrol Trooper Lance Ramsay said.

The deer crashed through the windshield and died.

Knaus, a packaging and distribution manager for The Herald, was on his way home from volunteer work. He suffered severe injuries, including chest injuries, and initially was listed in critical but stable condition at Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus. A nursing supervisor said Knaus’ condition had improved and he was to be moved out of the critical care unit.

His 1996 Chevrolet pickup was destroyed.

Guilty plea in hammer attack: A Monroe man with an alleged penchant for misusing tools is now facing nearly 1 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree robbery.

Milton Everett Jennings, 42, told a Snohomish County Superior Court judge that he likely would be convicted if he went to trial for the June 21 robbery, which involved his attempt to walk away with a lawn mower that had been chained up outside the Sears store in Monroe.

When a store employee tried to stop him, Jennings allegedly pulled out a hammer and hit the man on the head and the arm with the claw end, leaving gashes, according to court papers. He was arrested after another store employee jumped into the fray and helped detain him until police arrived.

In 1998, Jennings was convicted of attempted second-degree assault. In that case, he attacked several people with a machete, according to court papers.

Man pleads guilty to robbery: A man who was arrested in August after a deputy used his body like a battering ram to crash through a wooden fence pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree robbery.

Joseph Bernard Hradec, 30, entered the plea during a brief hearing in Snohomish County Superior Court.

He’s been jailed since the Aug. 3 robbery of a Snohomish County 7-Eleven and faces nearly two years in prison at his Oct. 4 sentencing. Hradec was charged with robbing the convenience store and then leading police on a wild chase that began near Snohomish and ended in Marysville.

Prosecutors said the chase came to a halt when a deputy crashed through a fence and subdued Hradec. The defendant had ditched his car and was trying to climb over the fence when the deputy slammed through it, knocking the man to the ground.

School’s outage: Students at Garfield Elementary School in Everett got an unexpected day off Tuesday because of a power outage at the school.

Crews from Snohomish County PUD were able to restore power by late afternoon, and school will resume today, school officials said.

The outage did not stop voters from casting their ballots at the school Tuesday. Since a different power source serves portable classrooms on the campus at 2215 Pine St., the voting booths were moved to a portable to accommodate the election.

A man who may have committed three previous bank robberies — two of them in Everett — got away with an undisclosed amount of cash Wednesday in a robbery of Frontier Bank at 212th Street SW and Highway 99.

The robbery occurred at about 10:15 a.m., Lynnwood police Sgt. Steve Rider said. Police searched the area, but were unable to locate the robber, he said.

The robber is thought to be responsible for two Everett bank robberies and one in King County, said Ray Lauer, FBI spokesman in Seattle. In some of the robberies, he wore a "Gilligan" type hat.

Witnesses described the robber as white, about 6 feet, 170 pounds, with "Coke bottle" type glasses with thick frames, wearing a blue stocking cap and a Navy blue windbreaker. He also was described as unkempt.

Investigators ask anyone with information on the robber to call Lynnwood Detective Rod Cohnheim at 425-744-6918, or the FBI in Seattle at 206-622-0460.

From Herald staff reports