EDMONDS – Oil skimmers were zooming around the waters off Point Wells in Edmonds Tuesday as part of an oil spill response drill. The site is near where 4,637 gallons of fuel oil spilled into Puget Sound in December 2003.

“It’s just another chance to get their boats on the water and get familiar with their equipment,” said Larry Altose, a state Department of Ecology spokesman.

He said the U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ecology Department and oil companies participated in the drill. The Point Wells spill has been cleaned up, but the investigation into the accident is still going on, Altose said.

Mukilteo: Search locks down schools

Three schools and the Mukilteo School District office were locked down for almost two hours Tuesday as Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies searched for a man who rammed his Honda into a sergeant’s patrol car.

The sergeant pulled the man over for a traffic infraction near the intersection of 92nd Street SW and Fourth Avenue W., sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said. The man apparently became upset and hit the sergeant’s car while the sergeant was inside it at about 1:40 p.m.

The sergeant wasn’t injured. Deputies and Everett police launched an extensive search of the area.

Meanwhile, the Mukilteo School District office, ACES Alternative High School, Challenger Elementary School and Explorer Middle School were locked down, said district spokesman Andy Muntz.

Horizon Elementary School, about 10 blocks away, was also briefly locked down, Muntz said.

Everett police found the man in the area about 3:25 p.m., Jorgensen said. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault.

Edmonds: Mexican national sentenced

A Mexican national who had a pistol in his possession during a gunfight Aug. 25 in Edmonds was sentenced in Snohomish County Superior Court to nearly three years in prison Tuesday.

Pedro Esparaza-Barajas, 36, was illegally in this country at the time of the shooting, in which two men died. A companion fired the fatal shots, deputy prosecutor John Adcock said.

Esparaza-Barajas pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He will be deported when he gets through serving his sentence, Adcock said.

Killed in the gunfire were Nolberto “Paul” Lopez-Rodriquez, 36, and Adan Hernandez, 23.

From Herald staff reports