Two die in crash following police chase in SeaTac

SEATAC — A 21-year-old Seattle woman fleeing police collided with another car near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, killing two people in the second car.

The woman, who had been named in a misdemeanor warrant, was treated at Valley Medical Center in Renton for a cut leg, said Paul Petersen, a police spokesman in Kent.

The Seattle couple killed in the crash were identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office as Richard Jones, 65, and his wife, Mary Jones, 56.

Petersen said the chase began about 10 p.m. Wednesday and covered 3 1/2miles.

Federal Way

Special ed teacher assaulted: A 15-year-old boy has been arrested for investigation in an attack on a special education teacher at Federal Way High School, police said Wednesday. King County prosecutors are considering filing a second-degree assault charge against the student, whose name was withheld. Police were called to the school Monday morning, and witnesses described the attack on Jennifer Panico, 25, a single mother with two young daughters. The student was arrested by an on-campus school resource officer. The teacher was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way with what were first described as minor injuries, then transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle when doctors discovered more serious injuries to her upper chest, head and face.

Wenatchee

Video clerk shot to death: Police on Thursday had no suspects in the fatal shooting of a video store clerk during an apparent robbery. Customers arriving at the Liberty Video store Wednesday night found Christina "Chrissy" Clements, 22, of East Wenatchee, bleeding from a gunshot wound, police said. Clements was taken to Central Washington Hospital, where she died from a single gunshot wound to the head, police said. Robbery was the apparent motive, because there was no paper money left in the store’s cash registers, police said. The homicide is the first in Wenatchee since 1998.

Vancouver

Judge mulls penalty against sleeping juror: It was bad enough when the juror settled into a determined snooze during opening statements in Clark County Superior Court. When the same man ignored a warning and was 20 minutes late returning from lunch, Judge John Nichols replaced him and now says he may be penalized. "Theoretically, he is in contempt of court," Nichols said Wednesday. "I think we should do something, but what? Not pay him his $10 (daily juror’s fee)? Make him show up for jury duty again?"

Seattle

Roman Catholic activist dead at 70: Barbara Geraci, a Roman Catholic activist and one of the first lay women in the country to serve as director of missions in an archdiocese, is dead at age 70. Geraci, a founding member of the anti-abortion and anti-euthanasia group Human Life of Washington, died Dec. 12 of cancer. In 1983, Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, now retired, appointed Geraci as director of the missions office for the Archdiocese of Seattle, the first lay person to hold the post locally and one of the first lay women to hold such a position in the United States.

Oregon

Student loses battle for rat-friendly photo: A high school senior who fought to be photographed with her pet rat for the school yearbook has been overruled by school district officials, who supported her principal’s decision to reject the picture. Kathleen Hanneman, the district’s director of secondary education, said she carefully considered Sarah Ball’s arguments, studied previous yearbooks, and reviewed school and district policy before making her decision. "The key element was that in our policy … the school principal is the editor and publisher of all school publications," Hanneman said. Principal Rey Mayoral has said the school maintains a high standard for the senior portrait section, and he’s willing to run Ball’s rat picture in another section. He also offered to pay to have Ball’s senior picture retaken. Ball, 17, said that’s not enough. "I want to go to court," she said. "It just didn’t seem like they reviewed it very well."

From Herald news services