Archive for January, 2013

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Updated at 7:48 p.m.

MUCH OF SHOP BUILDING, CONTENTS HAULED AWAY

• A 53-year-old Olympia man called the sheriff’s office when he arrived to his shop building on the 700 block of Big Hanaford Road outside Centralia to find someone had made off with metal panels from the roof and the side of the building along with about $12,000 worth of items from inside it. A deputy responding on Friday night was told all four bay doors were gone as well, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Among the missing property is a transmission and parts from a ski boat and the same from a motor home, according to the sheriff’s office. The theft occurred sometime since mid-December, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. There are no suspects, she said.

JEWELRY REPORTED STOLEN FROM BODY

• The Lewis County Coroner’s Office called police about 4:30 p.m. on Friday about a gold wedding band missing from one of their deceased individuals. The ring was present at the place of death but since disappeared, according to police. The case is under investigation, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

ALARM, DEPUTY, SCARE WOULD-BE THIEF(S)

• A backpack containing presumed “burglary tools” such as bolt cutters were found in a ditch near the 100 block of Hamilton Road North outside Chehalis early this morning when deputies responded to an alarm and found a hole cut in a chain link fence at Washington Tractor. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said someone stole about $4,000 worth of items such as Honda generator, a mower and trimmer but dropped them and fled. It happened about 12:45 a.m., according to the sheriff’s office.

CAR MISPLACED

• Chehalis police were called about 1:25 p.m. on Friday regarding a maroon Crown Victoria stolen from the parking lot at the Lewis County Juvenile Justice Center on Southwest Pacific Avenue. It turned out the driver had just forgotten where she’d parked it, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

PARKING LOT PANDEMONIUM

• Police were called to Chehalis Middle School at about 6 p.m. on Friday where some were calling 911, worried a dispute in the parking lot between parents might turn into a fight. A 35-year-old Chehalis father arriving to pick up his daughter was upset he couldn’t find a parking spot and another vehicle wouldn’t move out of his way, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Ryan C. Shewell allegedly flashed his lights, and was yelling and swearing when he approached a woman who got back into her car and locked it, police said. Shewell was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for disorderly conduct, as well as driving with a suspended license, Officer Linda Bailey said.

WHEELS TAKEN

• Centralia police took a report yesterday afternoon from the 1000 block of G Street regarding the theft of three aluminum GMC wheels from the alley behind a residence.

BURGLARY FROM LAST YEAR, OR BEFORE THAT, REPORTED

• Sometime since December 2010, someone made off with kitchen cabinets, counter tops, wall heaters, light fixtures, a sink, faucets and a wood stove from a home on the 100 block of Temple Road in Morton, according to the sheriff’s office. A deputy was asked yesterday to take a report from a woman handling a foreclosure for a mortgage company. She said it occurred prior to the end of October, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

VEHICLE PROWL

• Deputies were called about 4 a.m. on Saturday when the son of a 39-year-old Chehalis-area man looked out the window and saw a male inside his dad’s truck. The father went outside to confront the prowler but the individual described as thin with a goatee and wearing his hood up jumped in  a car and sped away  to the south in a dark-colored, older Saturn, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It happened on the 2300 block of Jackson Highway. Stereos were missing from two vehicles, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

• Cash and a knife were stolen from an unlocked vehicle parked outside a residence on Southeast Park Hill Drive in Chehalis, according to a report made to police yesterday morning. The glove box had been rifled through as well, according to police.

• Chehalis police took a report on Friday of a vehicle prowl of a motor home parked at the Wal-Mart parking lot. It’s owner said the steering column was damaged and is compiling a list of missing items, according to the Chehalis Police Department. A Chehalis officer the day before had posted a 24-hour notice on the vehicle because it had been parked too long at the lot on the 1600 block of Louisiana Avenue, Officer Linda Bailey said.

VANDALISM

• Nothing was missing but a church’s window was broken and lots of doors and cabinets were left open when a deputy arrived about 8 a.m. on Saturday morning to a break-in at the 100 block of Swofford Road near Mossyrock. The repair is estimated at $300, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• Someone left graffiti overnight on a fence at a business on the 800 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia, according to a report made to police yesterday. Later, an officer responded to a complaint from the 100 block of East Center Street about graffiti to their building and elsewhere in the area, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WOMAN EXTRICATES SELF FROM CAR WEDGED UNDER TRUCK

• Firefighters were called about 4:45 p.m. yesterday to Interstate 5 near Labree Road in Chehalis for a two-vehicle collision that left a passenger car wedged partially beneath the trailer of a semi truck. “It sounded quite bad at dispatch, but when we got there, the lady (driver) was standing next to her car,” Lewis County Fire District 6 Firefighter-Paramedic Matt McCoy said. She said she had swerved to miss another vehicle and her two-door car came to rest about half of it under the truck, McCoy said. “I tell ya, if the car would have gone another foot under the semi, it would have been a different story,” McCoy said describing the impact point as just inches from the woman’s head. She suffered some abdominal and leg pain and was transported by medics to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to District 6.

ROLLOVER WRECK

• The sheriff’s office reported this morning a 24-year-old Tenino woman escaped with minor injuries to her face and head when she hit a guard rail and rolled her car onto it top at the 300 block of Logan Hill Road around 2 o’clock on Saturday morning. The un-named driver appeared intoxicated and a blood draw was taken; the case will be referred for a charge of driving under the influence, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

News brief: Citizens hand over 26 unwanted guns in Thurston County

Monday, January 21st, 2013
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Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza says he’s happy to help properly dispose of the guns folks considered hazardous items. / Courtesy photo by Thurston County Sheriff’s Office

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says 26 guns were turned in during their weekend event giving citizens the opportunity to dispose of firearms.

Sheriff John Snaza said in a news release that often times unwanted guns are not secured properly and can end up in the hands of those who don’t know how to use them or shouldn’t have them at all.

Last year, 174 firearms were stolen in burglaries around unincorporated Thurston County, according to Snaza. Those are weapons on the streets and unaccounted for, Snaza pointed out.

On Saturday, the sheriff’s office collected 10 handguns, 16 long guns and three five-gallon buckets of ammunition folks dropped off at the McLane Fire Department, according to the sheriff’s office.

Gun givers were able to choose if their donated weapon was sent to be destroyed or traded to a licensed dealer for ammunition for deputies to use in training.

The sheriff’s office plans to conduct another event this fall, but meanwhile, anyone who wants to get rid of firearms or ammunition can call 360-786-5500, according to Lt. Greg Elwin.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Monday, January 21st, 2013

Updated at 2:32 p.m.

THREE-CAR WRECK INVOLVES TWO POLICE CARS

• A Winlock resident reportedly escaped any injury when his car was hit early this morning by a police car in Longview. Troopers were called just after 5 a.m. to the 300 block of Oregon Way when a Longview police officer responding to a call was following too closely behind another responding police officer, according to the Washington State Patrol. Officer Brian M. Nevels, 28, ran into Leslie C. Auman’s Volkswagen Jetta and then into the rear of the other police car, according to the state patrol. No one was hurt and the damage to Nevel’s and Auman’s vehicles was described simply as “reportable” by the state patrol. The cause was determined to be following too closely.

POSSIBLE MOTEL ROOM STABBING

• Centralia police responded  to a report of a possible stabbing at a motel the 1300 block of Lakeshore Drive at about 4:40 p.m. on Saturday and found a 22-year-old man with an approximately 2-inch gash on his forearm. The motel guest said he fell and cut himself on a broken liquor bottle in his room but officers were seeking his 56-year-old girlfriend to confirm the story, according to the Centralia Police Department. The 22-year-old was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to police.

TRUCK REPORTED STOLEN TURNS UP NEAR HIT AND RUN ACCIDENT

• Centralia police took a report of a truck stolen from Orton Street in Centralia this morning at about the same time troopers were called about a hit and run south of Tumwater. The truck’s owner, found at his brother’s house on 143rd Avenue near Tenino, said he called 911 after he asked his brother to pick him up and take him to work, according to the Centralia Police Department. Since the description of the owner was similar to the description of the truck driver in the hit and run, and the truck was discovered in the brother’s back yard, the 29-year-old Centralia man is being questioned further, Sgt. Carl Buster said. The 29-year-old was booked by the state patrol for hit and run and may be charged in Centralia with making a false statement to an officer, according to police. His 31-year-old brother faces the same possible charge for statements he allegedly made, police said.

FOUND STOLEN HONDA, MINUS STEREO

• The owner of a car that vanished early Thursday from in front of a Centralia home spotted it yesterday parked at South King Street and Centralia College Boulevard, according to police. An officer called just after 5 p.m. noted the silver 1997 Honda Civic was filthy, had been rummaged through and its stereo was gone,  according to the Centralia Police Department. The vehicle started right up and was turned over the victim, according to police. Sgt. Carl Buster said he wasn’t certain, but believed it was found parked in the driveway of an uninhabited residence.

MAN ARRESTED FOR PROWLING AROUND

• Police responding to an alarm about 6 a.m. yesterday found a 28-year-old Centralia man inside a fenced compound at the 1200 block of North Tower Avenue. Ryan E. Morehouse old officers he had gone there to smoke pot out of view of the public but a laptop computer taken from inside one of the nearby parked trucks was discovered hidden under a pallet by the fence, according to Sgt. Carl Buster. Morehouse was arrested for second-degree burglary and booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

STOLEN CREDIT CARD LANDS MOTEL GUEST IN JAIL

• Police following up on a report of someone using a stolen credit to check into a motel on the 1000 block of Eckerson Road on Friday arrested a 49-year-old Olympia man for credit card fraud. Jeffrey Marchell was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

MOM REPORTS HANDSY TEEN

• A mother called Centralia police about 3:30 p.m. yesterday to say a 15-year-old boy grabbed her 14-year-old daughter’s behind while at Fort Borst Park. Police are following up.

VANDALISM

• Centralia police took three reports of graffiti discovered over the weekend: yesterday morning on the side of a business on the 800 block of North Tower Avenue; on Saturday blue and yellow spray paint found on the side of a garage on the 600 block of North Tower Avenue; and earlier on Saturday on a fence and street sign near the 100 block of Roanoke Street.

PACKWOOD HOUSE LOST TO FIRE

• A fire investigator is looking into the cause of Packwood blaze that destroyed a two-story home on Friday afternoon. The wood-frame house is a total loss, according to Fire Investigator Jay Birley. When crews arrived, flames were shooting 20 to 30 feet above the roof, and the rear of the structure was in danger of collapsing, according to Lewis County Fire District 10 “pretty much, we took a defensive stance,” Chief Lonnie Goble said. The owner of the home on the 100 block of Timberline Drive was out of town when it happened, he said.

CENTRALIAN FROM DRIVE-BY SHOOTING BACK IN LEWIS COUNTY JAIL

• A Centralia teenager sentenced to nearly 93 years in prison for a downtown Centralia drive-by shooting five years ago is scheduled to appear in Lewis County Superior this week after an appeals court decision ordered him to be re-sentenced. Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr. was 16 in the summer of 2007 when he sprayed gunfire along the east side of South Tower Avenue missing six bar patrons. He maintained he was innocent but was convicted. He challenged his virtual life sentence in light of a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held a sentence of life without parole is forbidden for a juvenile who did not commit homicide. Solis-Diaz was returned to the Lewis County Jail on Friday. The appearance is scheduled Thursday to set a date for re-sentencing.

JAMES REEDER SET TO BE SENTENCED IN MARCH

• A judge has set a date of March 6 for the sentencing of the Centralia man convicted earlier this month of the sexual abuse and death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter. Koralynn Fister died May 24 in Centralia. James M. Reeder, 26, made a so-called Alford plea on Jan. 9 in Lewis County Superior Court in which he did not admit guilt but acknowledged a jury hearing the evidence would likely find him guilty. Under the terms of the plea deal, the attorneys will recommend the judge give Reeder a minimum of around three decades in prison and possibly remain incarcerated for the rest of his life. Sentencing hearings generally offer an opportunity for family of victims to tell the judge what they think the sentence should be and why. Defendants are also given a chance to speak. Court hearings are open to the public. The session is set for 10:30 a.m.

News brief: Two Winlock residents seriously injured in morning wreck

Friday, January 18th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 49-year-old father and his 16-year-old son were airlifted after a single-vehicle accident south of Winlock this morning.

A deputy was called about 11:20 a.m. to the 1100 block of Winlock-Vader Road found the driver of a truck somehow lost control, hit the ditch, rolled over and landed on its top, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The Winlock residents were both wearing seat belts but sustained serious head injuries, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

They were flown by helicopter to Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Brown said. Their names were not released.

The 1996 Toyota 4by4 was totaled, she said.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, January 18th, 2013

Updated at 12:34 p.m.

GUNS AND TRUCK STOLEN FROM MIDDLE FORK ROAD

• A deputy responding to the 1300 block of Middle Fork Road near Onalaska yesterday evening took a report someone stole a man’s pickup truck and burglarized his home making off with several firearms, credit cards, checkbooks and documents such as a birth certificate and a passport. The 55-year-old victim said it had occurred sometime since Saturday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Among the missing weapons is a shotgun, a Remington 22 semi-automatic rifle and at least one other handgun, according to the sheriff’s office. There’s no indication how the intruder got inside, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. The missing vehicle is described as a red and gray 1989 Ford F250 with a black lumber rack and toolbox in the bed of the truck, Brown said.

FIREARMS PILFERED FROM VEHICLE

• A Ruger 22 rifle and a 44 Magnum pistol vanished from the back seat of a pickup truck parked at a residence on the 900 block of E. Street in Centralia overnight, according to a report made to police yesterday morning. The owner said his vehicle had been locked but he found the driver’s door ajar, according to the Centralia Police Department.

ANOTHER AUTO THEFT IN CENTRALIA

• Centralia police took a report about 8:20 a.m. yesterday of a locked car stolen from the driveway in front of a residence on the 200 block of Tilley Avenue. The silver 1997 Honda Civic has a personalized license plate reading WWU 0905, according to the Centralia Police Department. Numerous Hondas and similar vehicles have gone missing locally in the past few days possibly because someone is using a “shaved” key to gain access, according to police. Sgt. Carl Buster said this morning that another officer discovered property stolen from one of the cars in the possession of a man he arrested in an unrelated case. “They’re digging into that now,” Buster said.

STUDENT BRUISED, WINDOW BROKEN IN SCHOOL BUS FIGHT

• Chehalis police were contacted yesterday by a mother who reported her teenage son was assaulted on his school bus the day before; struck in the stomach and the ear, as well as in the head hard enough his head broke a window on the bus. An officer investigated the alleged attack of the 14-year-old and found bruising and a swollen eye, according to Deputy Police Chief Randy Kaut. The suspect, also 14, faces a possible charge of fourth-degree assault, according to Kaut.

OOPS

• A woman presumably trying to stay out of trouble for driving with a suspended license when she was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy last night allegedly gave her sister’s name as her own, but ended up in jail for making a false statement because the deputy recognized her, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Jennifer A. Haggard, of Onalaska, was stopped on the 300 block of Napavine Road East in Chehalis because of expired car tabs, according to the sheriff’s office. She was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for the false statement and first-degree driving on a suspended license, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

$100 GAS DRIVE OFF

• Police were called about 1:30 p.m. yesterday when someone in an older brown Suburban pumped about $100 worth of fuel at a service station on West Main Street and then left without paying for it. No arrest was made.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called yesterday morning to a church on the 1800 block of Snively Avenue where someone had kicked in the door to a storage shed. Nothing appeared to be missing, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Police took a report yesterday morning of tires slashed on a vehicle during the night at the 3100 block of Galvin Road in Centralia.

• A 28-year-old homeless man was arrested about 1:30 p.m. yesterday when  Chehalis police detective spotted him spray painting on a storage container at Northwest Prindle and Front streets.  Matthew E. Eastman was arrested for third-degree malicious mischief and then released, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Centralia police were contacted yesterday afternoon about gang-style graffiti spray painted onto a sidewalk on the 1500 block of Oxford Avenue.

WRECK

• A 21-year-old Winlock resident t was hospitalized yesterday after a two-vehicle collision at the 800 block of Highway 603 west of Chehalis. A deputy responding about 4 p.m. learned a Toyota Forerunner made a left turn in front of the Winlock man’s Mazda, totaling the Mazda, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The Mazda driver had shoulder and leg pain and was taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to the sheriff’s office. The Forerunner had only minor damage and it’s 20-year-old driver from Lacey was reportedly uninjured, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. He was cited for failing to yield and having no insurance, Brown said.

Michael Patton: Gift of reflective vest couldn’t save confused pedestrian from freight train

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Why was a grown man who lived 13 miles out of town, and no longer drove, standing near the outside rail of the tracks in downtown Centralia in the middle of the night?

Nobody knows for sure, because he was struck and killed by a freight train last week.

But his ex-wife has a pretty good idea.

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Michael T. Patton

Michael T. Patton, 58, lived alone in a house he built on Centralia-Alpha Road in Chehalis. Alzheimer’s ran in his family.

Some months ago, he’d developed a routine of walking to Centralia every day to visit his ex-wife, Gene Inmon.

Inmon was the one who took him to the Veteran’s Hospital in Seattle last May, where the doctor who took a brain scan told her he didn’t know how Patton was even functioning.

“I was around him every day so I didn’t notice it like other people did,” Inmon said. “But it was like every day, there was another piece of him gone.

“It’s a terrible disease.”

Thankfully his truck finally broke down, so he had to quit driving, Inmon said on a recent day as she recounted the downward spiral she witnessed in her former husband.

Sometimes he was giggly, as though he were a kid again, she said.

Adult Protective Services had begun the process to get him a guardian to mange his affairs, she said. He didn’t even know how old he was, she said, he needed to go into a some kind of home.

“I was terrified something was going to happen to him, because he was so confused,” she said.

Inmon, a sometimes substitute teacher who also works in an office in Tenino, said the disease came on fast and progressed rapidly, leaving few traces of the former “Pe Ell boy.”

Patton was single father who raised his three children in Pe Ell, she said. When he was younger, he was a a medic in the Army and served in Germany, she said.

For 35 years, Patton worked for Weyerhaeuser harvesting pine cone seeds during the season and then as a contractor in the off-season.

Inmon and Patton lived in Doty during their five-year marriage, after his daughter and two sons were mostly grown.

He was a fix-it guy, that little old ladies loved and a guitar player who composed songs he shared with friends, at home and at church, she said.

He attended Centralia Bible Chapel every Sunday before he got sick, she said.

Early last week, Patton arrived in Centralia with an orange reflective vest. Someone had stopped him on the road and given it to him, Inmon said. She doesn’t know who. He just told her it was a “gift.”

Inmon said it was his habit to stop and sort of hunker down into his shoulders when traffic would go by.

The day before he was killed, Patton wore his vest. He and Inmon did some shopping, had lunch, and she got him some movies before driving him home.

That night, she got a phone call from a process server looking for Patton’s address so he could deliver the guardianship papers.

It was 9 o’clock, she said.

“I told him, he’s asleep, he’s sick, don’t get him all riled up,” she said. “And that’s exactly what happened. I’m sure he was heading here.”

Patton died hours later.

Centralia police were called about 12:30 a.m. on January 9 to the area near Chestnut Street and South Tower Avenue.

Police were told by the engineer and conductor of the Union Pacific train they were near the Gold Street viaduct when they saw him and began sounding the horn.

According to the police report, the man was facing west with his hands in his pockets and just stood there.

He turned his head toward the train just before impact, police wrote.

Patton’s body landed only about 10 feet from the tracks. He was wearing the reflective vest over his leather coat, according to detective Rick Hughes. With him was a newly purchased pack of cigarettes and an unscratched lottery ticket, Hughes wrote.

The locomotive was stopped in the middle of the intersection at Maple Street. The engineer said he believed the train was slowed down to less than 40 mph.

Patton probably didn’t even know what the train’s headlight was, Inmon said.

His death was determined to have been accidental.

“It’s all very sad, and it should not have happened,” Inmon said. “There’s a side of me that’s angry and sad, and a part of me that thinks he’s released from that.”

Last year in Washington, there were 14 people struck and killed by trains in Washington. The year before, there were 26.

The stretch of tracks through Centralia is the busiest route in the state, with an average of 60 trains each day.

Patton is survived by his children, Jennifer Coucoules, Allen Patton and Edward Patton, their families and also by two brothers and two sisters, according to Inmon.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday Jan. 26, 2013 at 1 p.m. at Centralia Bible Chapel, 209 N. Pearl St., Centralia, Wash. A potluck will follow.

Instead of flowers, his family requests donations be made to the Lewis County Veteran’s Relief Fund, 360 NW North St., Chehalis, Wash., 98532 or to the University of Washington Alzheimer’s Research Fund.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

MIDDLE SCHOOL DRUGS

• A 12-year-old boy was taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center yesterday because he allegedly brought a hydrocodone pill with him to Centralia Middle School and gave it to a 12-year-old girl. It came to the attention of authorities when the girl went to an adult at school because she was experiencing ill effects, according to the Centralia Police Department.

DOMESTIC DISPUTE LEADS TO ARREST

• A 42-year-old Chehalis man was arrested yesterday for allegedly threatening to kill his girlfriend. Michael J. Folden, was booked into the Lewis County Jail for felony harassment, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

BURGLARY MIDDLE FORK ROAD

• A deputy was called yesterday to a residential burglary at a home on the 1500 block of  Middle Fork Road near Onalaska. The homeowner said he returned home to discover a laptop computer and camera was missing, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

VEHICLE THEFT

• Centralia police took a report about 7:40 a.m. today of 2012 black Honda 700 motorcycle stolen from the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue. It’s owner said the key is stuck in the ignition and cannot be removed. It has a British Columbia license plate of S70757, according to the Centralia Police Department.

MONEY MISSING

• Chehalis police responded to a call yesterday to an insurance office on Boistfort Street in which about $150 cash was discovered missing. There is more than one office in the building, and no forced entry was found, so it’s not clear when someone may have gotten inside, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Chehalis police were contacted by an individual yesterday about unauthorized bank card withdrawals from his account that occurred while he was staying at the Chehalis Inn on Southwest Interstate Avenue. The case, in which abut $3,500 is missing, is under investigation, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

COMPUTERS TAKEN

• Centralia police responded in less than 24 hours to two thefts of  computers, both of which have identified suspects. This morning, a woman on the 600 block of Nick Road said a friend of her son left the home with a laptop computer, but not with permission to take it according to the Centralia Police Department. Yesterday afternoon, a laptop was reported missing from the 1000 block of Mellen Street, according to police.