GUNPOINT ROBBERY
Updated at 3:45 p.m.
• Centralia police arrested a 26-year-old man yesterday after he allegedly robbed a male at gunpoint yesterday afternoon in Centralia. Officers called about 3:25 p.m. to the 1400 block of Jensen Street said the 20-year-old victim told them he was confronted at gunpoint by two people in a red car who demanded money but then fled the area when he ran from them. A responding officer spotted the car near the 1400 block of View Avenue and one of its occupants bailed out and fled, according to the Centralia Police Department. Officers captured the suspect a few blocks away in a trailer park on the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue, detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said. The suspect, Benjamin S. Alaniz of Chehalis, was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with exhaustion-related symptoms from running, and then was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree robbery and possession of a controlled substance, Fitzgerald said. A search of the vehicle turned up a loaded semi-automatic pistol and several rounds of ammunition, according to police. Fitzgerald said an inspection of the gun revealed the trigger had actually been pulled, but the gun failed to fire. Fitzgerald said the victim was acquainted with the pair and had been meeting them in the area with $1,000 in his pocket. He declined to speculate what the money was for. The driver of the car was released. Police found a small amount of white crystalline substance on Alaniz, Fitzgerald said.
THEFT
• Chehalis police were called about 4:20 this morning about two teenage boys running out of Safeway on South Market Boulevard with two cases of beer.
VANDALISM
• Chehalis police were called yesterday afternoon about graffiti on a billboard at Northeast Kresky Avenue and Hampe Way in Chehalis.
DRUGS
• Police arrested a 29-year-old Chehalis woman yesterday morning for allegedly filling somebody else’s prescription at a pharmacy on the 500 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia. Andrea A. Smith was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for forgery and possession of a controlled substance, according to the Centralia Police Department.
CENTRALIA TEENS ARRESTED AFTER GREAT WOLF LODGE ATTACK
• The Olympian reports a 15-year-old boy was beaten and robbed of his iPod at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound by Centralia teenagers. Read about it here
CORRECTION: The gunpoint robbery item has been updated to reflect the car was reportedly occupied by a man and a woman, not two men.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter