A reported gang member committed suicide during a shootout that followed the killing of a King County sheriff’s deputy, the medical examiner’s office has reported.
Raymond Oliver Porter, 23, of Burien, died of a “penetrating self-inflicted contact handgun wound of the head” after being shot by deputies at a residence in White Center in the suburbs south of the city, investigators wrote in a report issued late Tuesday. “The manner of death is suicide.”
Porter shot himself after he was shot in the thigh and chest by a deputy, according to the report. The chest wound was described as life-threatening, but not necessarily fatal.
Both shots were fired by a 24-year-old deputy with about 15 months on the job, sheriff’s Sgt. John W. Urquhart said. That deputy and a 42-year-old veteran with 10 years of service who also shot at Porter remained on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure following shootings by law enforcement officers.
Associated Press
Vancouver, Wash.: Pig falls from tractor-trailer
When Christine Gamache was driving along Interstate 205 and saw a pig fall out the back of a tractor-trailer rig, she didn’t just scratch her head and drive on. She pulled over and stood by the 500-pound animal, possibly averting a freeway pile-up, the State Patrol said.
Gamache was driving northbound on I-205 on Monday when the pig somehow fell out the back of an open-top box trailer. It hit the ground spinning.
After dodging the pig and another truck, Gamache, who had no cell phone, stopped her car and walked up to the pig. The pig was favoring a sore left rear leg but didn’t seem seriously hurt.
The pig was taken to safety until its owners could be located.
Associated Press
Two men arrested in restaurant arson case
Two men have been taken into custody in connection with a restaurant fire that has been confirmed as an arson, the Vancouver Fire Department said.
Investigators found “hate graffiti” spray-painted inside the Galilee Cafe, said fire department spokesman Jim Flaherty.
Sprinklers at the cafe doused most of the flames before firefighters arrived at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday. Other businesses in the same complex suffered some water damage.
Two men were being held at the Clark County Jail for investigation of first-degree arson, burglary and malicious harassment.
Associated Press
Yakima: Pastor charged with molestation of girl
A fired Yakima Salvation Army Church pastor has been charged with molesting an 11-year-old girl from his congregation.
Eduardo Efrain Alfaro, 65, was arraigned Tuesday in Yakima County Superior Court on a single count of first-degree child molestation. He remains in jail on $100,000 bail.
Alfaro is accused of molesting the girl last summer. According to charging documents, the girl told police Alfaro kissed her on the lips in the basement of the church. The girl also told police that Alfaro kissed and fondled her and another girl one day in his office, court documents said.
The other girl, 8, told police Alfaro kissed her on the lips and sat her on his lap, according to charging documents. He has not been charged with molesting her.
Associated Press
Mount Spokane: Two dead, son arrested
A sheriff’s deputy making a welfare check on a teacher who didn’t report to work found two bodies Wednesday in the outbuilding of a home near Mount Spokane.
The 18-year-old son of the couple who lived in the home was arrested.
Bryan P. Kim was being held for investigation of two counts of second-degree murder.
The Spokane County sheriff’s office said the victims were believed to be his parents, Teresa and Richard Kim.
The deputy who found the bodies had been asked to check on Teresa Kim, who hadn’t shown up for her job as a math teacher at Rogers High School.
The deputy, Mark Smoldt, found a bloody cell phone in the driveway and blood on the home’s floors before he found the bodies in a shed.
Associated Press
Spokane: Man gives up after 15-hour standoff
An armed man who held a woman and her daughter hostage in a north Spokane motel room surrendered to police, ending a standoff that lasted more than 15 hours.
Police said a man identified as Jeremy Dee Hanson, 26, fired a shot during the tense standoff Tuesday hours before negotiators talked him into giving up about 11:25 p.m. Tuesday.
The reason for the standoff was not immediately clear, but Spokane Police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said Hanson apparently was wanted on felony warrants in Montana. Hanson’s hometown and the charges contained in the warrants weren’t immediately known.
On Wednesday, the woman, Courtney Baker, was arrested and booked into the Spokane County Jail for investigation of second-degree criminal mistreatment.
Lee said the charge stems from the mother allegedly placing the child in imminent risk of death or great bodily harm as a result of her relationship with Hanson.
Associated Press
Oregon: Man rescued from mountain shortcut
Sheriff’s Office volunteers rescued a New Jersey man early Wednesday whose rented sport utility vehicle got stuck in snow on a remote forest service road near Oakridge.
Joseph Anstatt, 66, of Pennington, N.J., was headed from Eugene to Crater Lake on regular highways Tuesday night but decided on a shortcut after looking at a map, said John Miller, coordinator of the Lane County sheriff’s search and rescue team.
Volunteers found Anstatt at 2 a.m. Wednesday and helped free his rig. They led him to the road and sent him on his way.
He was found in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains hours before the body of James Kim, 35, of San Francisco, was found in the southern Oregon Coast Range four days after he left his stranded family to seek help.
The Kims, too, had taken a shortcut through snowy mountains.
Associated Press
Bellingham: Hiker accused of smuggling
A hiker rescued north of Glacier this weekend after four days in the snow got lost after allegedly walking across the border with marijuana, authorities said.
Jeffrey Matthew Fairleigh, 34, was booked into Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of smuggling drugs – 3 pounds of marijuana that he allegedly held onto despite being lost, rescued by helicopter and taken to St. Joseph Hospital.
The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will consider pursuing reimbursement from Fairleigh for the cost of the rescue.
Bellingham Herald
Vaughn: Expanded geoduck farm allowed
Pierce County regulators have approved a request by the region’s largest shellfish grower to add about three acres of tidelands to its geoduck operations.
Taylor Shellfish Farms has received a pair of shoreline substantial-development permits to grow geoducks on adjacent leased lands along Case Inlet on the west side of the Key Peninsula.
If the state Department of Ecology approves, workers for the Shelton-based company could begin planting the valuable bivalves near Vaughn next spring, about a year after the company had planned, said Diane Cooper, Taylor’s environmental policy manager.
The Pierce County permits are the first approved since Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula property owners organized to fight expanded geoduck aquaculture operations in Pierce County.
In his Nov. 30 decision on the Taylor permits, Pierce County deputy hearings examiner Terrence McCarthy attached a long list of provisions requiring Taylor to minimize the aesthetic and environmental impacts of the operation.
The News Tribune
Bainbridge Island: ‘Treehouse’ violates law
Bainbridge Island City Councilman Nezam Tooloee insisted it was a treehouse for his kids. But the city called it a deck, built illegally at the Tooloee home on a steep, beachside bank protected by shoreline law. The city ordered the structure removed. And now, a hearing examiner has agreed.
Terry McCarthy’s ruling released Tuesday tops nearly a year of wrangling between the councilman and city’s planning staff over the 12-by-12-foot platform perched 16 feet up among some maple branches and overlooking Puget Sound.
In February, a city code enforcer notified Tooloee and wife Berit Madsen that the structure, built without a permit, appeared to violate the city’s shoreline management program. The city’s planning director at the time, Larry Frazier, ordered it removed.
The couple appealed the decision to the hearing examiner in June, and argued that the structure was above the environmentally sensitive area, not on it. They said they had no idea a permit was needed and that their two young sons enjoyed it.
Kitsap Sun
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