Posts Tagged ‘By Sharyn L. Decker’

News brief: Procession of emergency vehicles to honor Chief Hadaller

Friday, July 1st, 2011
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Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Matt Hadaller. / Courtesy photo by Taryn Houghtelling

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A procession of fire trucks and law enforcement vehicles will travel east on U.S. Highway 12 tomorrow to the Mossyrock High School football stadium to attend the memorial service for Matthew M. Hadaller III, the fire chief who died unexpectedly on Monday night.

Hadaller, 47, was a member of his community’s fire department for 20 years, and spent the last seven and half years as chief.

He was at home late Monday night when he suffered what the coroner called a major cardiac event, caused by what is sometimes called arteriosclerosis, a narrowing of the arteries.

The technical term is arteriosclerotic coronary artery disease, according to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.

“My impression is he didn’t know he had it,” McLeod said today.

Volunteer members of his Lewis County Fire District 3 took him by ambulance to Morton General Hospital, but he suffered a cardiac arrest on the way and couldn’t be revived, Lewis County Fire District 13’s Chief Gregg Peterson said earlier this week.

The memorial service is set for 1 p.m.

The procession is set to depart about 12:15 p.m. from Avery Road at Highway 603. Motorists should expect delays in the area along Avery Road and U.S. Highway 12 until about 1 p.m., according to the area fire chiefs who are organizing the events.

The chiefs note that anyone wishing to make a donation to Hadaller’s family can do so at any branch of Twin Star Credit Union, mentioning the Chief Hadaller Fund.

Grand Mound: Training for nighttime fire calls

Friday, July 1st, 2011
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Vacant home on Carper Road Southwest, Grand Mound

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Firefighter prepares

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Members of the Rochester-area fire department were joined by other agencies yesterday as they used fire to clear some property belonging to the Rochester School District.

The live fire training exercise was to include a chance yesterday for about 30 firefighters to learn more about fire behavior, smoke conditions and nighttime operations.

West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott described the opportunity as very valuable to the department.

Personnel have been training in the structure for the past four months, on topics such as ventilation, search and rescue, fire attack, firefighter “may day” procedures and more, according to Scott.

“For us to receive this type of training for as many personnel that have participated would have cost thousands of dollars and required extensive travel in some cases – our only location for live fire training is 100 miles away at the State Fire Training Academy in North Bend,” Scott stated.

They let the fire take over the vacant house on Carper Road Southwest at about 8:30 p.m. and finished up about two hours later, according to Scott.

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Three firefighters practice their skills Thursday at a donated house next to Rochester High School.

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Personnel near the end of a live fire training exercise last night in Grand Mound.

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West Thurston Regional Fire Authority lets the fire take over.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

THEFT

• Centralia police were called just before 7 o’clock this morning about the theft of a car trailer from the 3600 block of Galvin Road.

• Centralia police were called to a car prowl about 6:40 a.m. yesterday at the 2500 block of Kristine Court. Someone had broke a window to get inside and steal an iPod, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Somebody broke into a residence on the 1100 block of Alder Street in Centralia and took knives, tobacco and money, according to a report made to Centralia police on Tuesday.

• Somebody removed a lock and stole money from a newspaper box outside a restaurant on the 3200 block of Galvin Road in Centralia, according to a report made to the Centralia Police Department on Tuesday.

• Somebody cut the fuel lines to three vans belonging to the Adna School District sometime between June 20 and Tuesday, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported yesterday. Gasoline was stolen as well.

VANDALISM

• Centralia police were called just before 4 a.m. yesterday to the 800 block of Ham Hill Road where someone had thrown a flower pot through the window of a home.

• Somebody shot out several windows of a vehicle, flattened it tires and spray painted all over it with black paint on the 1800 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia. it was reported about 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Just hours earlier in the same area, the rear window of another vehicle was found shot out. Police say a BB gun may have been used. Police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said it didn’t appear random, it seemed like “somebody was mad at somebody.”

SURLY MAN GETS JAILED

• A 54-year-old man was arrested yesterday after deputies went to a trespass and civil dispute on the 3700 block of Jackson Highway outside Chehalis. He was asked to stop moving items off the property so deputies could question him, but he argued and yelled and said he didn’t have to listen to cops, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Bruce W. Norris “pushed through” a sergeant, and came at a deputy, refusing to back away when he was told to do so, Chief Civl Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning. Norris was booked into the Lewis County Jail for obstruction, Brown said.

COLLISIONS

• Chehalis police were called about 4:20 p.m. yesterday after someone watched a truck from Darigold brake one of the arms at the railroad crossing on West Main Street and keep driving. Chehalis police detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said it happens “all the time” because the trucks are long and slow and the drivers usually call in and tell Burlington Northern what happened. Technically it’s a hit and run but whenever police contact Burlington Northern, they say they’ve already spoke with Darigold and will be out to repair it, McNamara said.

• A deputy was called  to the 400 block of Toledo-Vader Road on Tuesday where a Lewis County Public Works truck hailing a chip trailer struck a guard rail damaging the trailer, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

• A deputy was called after a car carrying four people attending a festival was totaled in a single-vehicle accident on Forest Road 25 outside Randle on Tuesday morning. The occupants, ages 19 through 26 – from San Francisco, California; Richmond, Virginia; Fort Lauderdale Florida and Cooper City, Florida were mostly uninjured, except one suffered minor cuts to their hand and arm, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported yesterday. The driver had lost control in a curve. He was ticketed, Chief Civl Deputy Stacy Brown said.

Onalaska fatal shooting: Brady faces sentencing next week

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Onalaska resident Ronald A. Brady will be sentenced on Wednesday morning following his conviction last week for fatally shooting a suspected burglar.

Brady, 60, argued self defense in his trial last week in Lewis County Superior Court. He avoided a first-degree murder conviction, but a jury of six men and six women found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter.

Judge Nelson Hunt did not order him into custody after the verdict on Friday evening, but had him return today to the courtroom in Chehalis to learn his sentencing date. He told Brady it would happen very soon after today.

Hunt this morning said sentencing should be next week.

Defense attorney Don Blair asked the judge if it could be held off until the end of July, as his client had his affairs to get in order before he goes to prison.

“We can do it on the sixth, or he can go into custody now,” Hunt said. “It was a big break for him not to go into custody that day.”

While the crime has a standard sentencing range of between 21 and 27 months, Brady faces an additional  mandatory minimum of three years – with no possibility of reduction for any “good” time – because it was committed with a firearm.

Brady admitted firing five or six shots with a .22 caliber rifle, three of them toward 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton who was outside the house Brady owns and died at the scene.

The retired bachelor was acquitted of assault in the case of McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie who testified she that while she took cover behind a truck in the driveway, she heard the glass in its windshield shot out and felt “air or something” graze her face.

Hunt will sentence him at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
•••

Read “Breaking news: Onalaska murder trial: Guilty of second-degree manslaughter” from Friday June 24, 2011, here

News brief: Prosecutor finds deputy shooting justified

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

This news story was updated at 9:55 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports this morning that the prosecutor’s review of Deputy Matt McKnight’s fatal shooting of a Napavine man last week concluded McKnight was justified.

The 27-year-old Lewis County sheriff’s deputy remained on paid administrative leave as of this morning, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Brown said an internal investigation is being conducted separately.

Deputies were assisting the Napavine Police Department with a call to a burglary in progress, around 2 a.m. on June 20, in which a man reportedly was stabbing the door of a home and trying to get in.

McKnight confronted the suspect several blocks away and the sheriff’s office says he refused to take his hands out of his pockets and then charged McKnight.

Thirty-three-year-old Steven V. Petersen, of Napavine died at the scene of a gunshot wound to the head.

A regional shooting response team, made up of law enforcement officers from the counties of Thurston, Mason, Pacific, and Grays Harbor conducted the investigation and turned their results over to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the sheriff’s office.

In a news release this morning, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield says prosecutors concluded the deputy’s use of deadly force was justified.

McKnight fired four shots, three of which struck Petersen, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer. Petersen was not found to be armed with a knife, he said.

Meyer said the deputy was left with no choice. Petersen was intending to do him harm, and McKnight was in fear for his life, he said.

The sheriff’s office internal investigation will include a “shooting review board”, as well as a review of policy, procedures and training, according to Sheriff Mansfield.

More to come
•••

Read “Breaking news: Deputy shoots, kills burglary suspect in Napavine” from Monday June 20, 2011, here

News brief: Training fire Thursday near Rochester High School

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Firefighters plan to burn down a Grand Mound area house tomorrow adjacent to Rochester High School.

The live fire training exercise is scheduled to begin around noon and continue until roughly 10 p.m., according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority spokesperson Lt. Lanette Dyer.

The Rochester-Littlerock area fire department will be joined by firefighters from two other agencies. Their training will include fire behavior, smoke conditions, night operations and interagency collaboration, according to Dyer.

Th school district donated a vacant 1,400 square-foot house to the fire department to get the property cleared, according to Battalion Chief Jacob Yake.

The address is 19735 Carper Rd S.W.

Carper Road will be closed at Old Highway 9 and at the west end of 197th Avenue Southwest.

News brief: John Booth’s murder trial postponed once again

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS  – John Allen Booth Jr.’s murder trial for last summer’s triple slaying has been postponed until Nov. 7.

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John A. Booth Jr.

His defense attorney Roger Hunko told a judge yesterday a double-homicide trial he has in Yakima just got moved to mid-August.

Booth was scheduled to be tried in Lewis County Superior Court at the end of August, but Hunko expects his Yakima trial to last three to four weeks, Hunko told Judge Richard Brosey yesterday.

Brosey granted the extension, even though Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said he preferred not to delay.

They chose November because both Brosey and Meagher are unavailable in September, and Meagher has another murder trial scheduled in October.

Booth, who turned 32 last week, is charged in the August 21 shootings of four people inside a Salkum-Onalaska area home. Found dead were David West Sr., 52, David J. West Jr., 16, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. Denise Salts, 52, survived a gunshot wound to her face.

The former Onalaska man was arrested and jailed four days later.

His former cell mate Ryan J. McCarthy, 29, of Redmond, is also charged in the case. His trial is set for the week of October 10.