" 'I Just Threw The Frigging Stool' At Gunman"

(CNN) -- As a gunman opened fire inside a cafe in Seattle, a patron jumped into action, twice hitting the shooter with a stool and saving three lives, police said.

The move was hailed by police as a heroic action, but Lawrence Adams, 56, said he was simply keeping a promise.

Adams' brother died in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and afterward he promised himself that if something like that ever happened again, "I would never hide under a table."

He was true to his vow Wednesday when faced with the gunman.

"There's a hero. .... He put his life at risk," Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel told reporters.

Police identified him only as Lawrence when they released details about the incident, but The Seattle Times confirmed his full name and age in Friday's edition.

In an interview with police, Adams said he had glanced at his phone when he heard gunshots, then sprung into action as he saw people scrambling around him.

"I just threw the frigging stool at him, legs first," he said in a statement published on the official Seattle police blog.

Police said his actions allowed three people to escape while a man armed with two handguns attacked.

The shooting left four people dead and one person critically injured inside Cafe Racer, a peaceful coffeehouse in the city's University District. A second shooting, about a half-hour later near downtown Seattle, left a woman dead, authorities said.

The suspect in both shootings, identified by police as Ian Stawicki, died Wednesday night, several hours after he shot himself in the head as a five-hour police manhunt came to an end.

Witnesses told police the gunman began shooting after an employee at the coffee shop asked him to leave.

Police said that a new piece of evidence investigators viewed Thursday showed the gunman opening fire in the cafe, where patrons were reading books and chatting over coffee.

"One person stands up, looks like he's going to go outside for a minute. At that point the suspect stands up and starts shooting ... and then just goes down the bar. He chases a few people," Pugel said. "At that time he's been hit by the stool, twice. He completes the shooting, puts the guns in his pockets, actually took a hat from one of the victims, put it on his head and walked out."

Stawicki, Adams said, "looked at me like he didn't [care] at all. He just moved towards the rear of the bar instead of dealing with me at all, and I just brushed past him. He was on a mission to kill my friends."

Police said they were shocked by the apparently senseless violence.

"In my almost 30 years in this department I've never seen anything more horrific and callous and cold," Deputy Chief Nick Metz said.

Witnesses described the shootings in several 911 recordings released by police Thursday.



"Someone came in and shot a bunch of people. I'm hiding in the bathroom. We need help right away. ... There's people down all over the place out there," one man calling from Cafe Racer said.

A female caller told dispatchers she saw a gunman assaulting a woman in a parking lot in downtown Seattle, then shooting her, stealing her black Mercedes and running her over as he sped away.

Authorities will continue their investigation into the shootings for several weeks but are "very confident" that Stawicki is the only suspect, Pugel said.

The violence left Seattle reeling Thursday. "Our department and the whole city is just trying to catch its breath" after the shooting, Metz said.



Two of the victims at Cafe Racer were members of a local folk band, God's Favorite Beefcake, according to CNN affiliates. They were found dead at the coffeehouse. A woman and a man died later at a hospital. A fifth person was in critical condition, police said, but was not expected to survive.



The suspect's brother, Andrew Stawicki, told The Seattle Times that Ian Stawicki had long struggled with mental illness, but refused to talk about that or his anger.



"Someone like that is so stubborn, you can't talk to him," he told the newspaper. "It's no surprise to me this happened. We could see this coming. Nothing good is going to come with that much anger inside of you."



A Wednesday night meeting was held in the city's Central District, where Mayor Mike McGinn and police officials discussed a recent spike in violence in Seattle, KOMO reported.



"If violence is a disease, our city is infected," said Paul Patu, of the city's Youth Violence Prevention Council, according to CNN affiliate KCPQ. "When old people are afraid of young people, something is wrong. We have to commit to getting to know each other and stop being strangers."



Seattle, a city of about 600,000, recorded 20 homicides in 2011, according to Police Department statistics. Wednesday's shootings bring 2012's year-to-date total to 21, according to KOMO. Two cases have been cleared, and seven arrests were made.



Two other people have died in random shootings in Seattle in the past month, according to CNN affiliates. In late April, a 21-year-old woman died in an apparently random drive-by shooting near downtown. And a 43-year-old man died last week while driving down the street with his family. Police said the gunman's intended target in that shooting was another person involved in a dispute with the gunman. No arrests have been made in either case.



On Saturday, a bystander was wounded near the city's landmark Space Needle when he was struck by a bullet allegedly fired by a gang member involved in a dispute with another man, according to KIRO.



McGinn acknowledged at a news conference that the violence had shaken the city, KIRO reported.



"It's going to take our political leaders coming together to give our police officers the support and tools they need to do their jobs," he said.

Teen Killed By Train Was Not On Tracks

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- A teenage girl struck and killed by a freight train in southwest Washington was not walking on the tracks when she was hit, according to a Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman.

Mindy Doster was a 17-year-old junior at Mountain View High School in Vancouver. She was struck near Evergreen Highway and 115th Court at about 5 p.m. Thursday.

Gus Melonas, a BNSF spokesman, said Doster was walking on the south side of the tracks near the Columbia River when she was hit by the train overhang.

The westbound train was traveling at a speed of 55 mph, investigators said. A railway spokesman said police found an iPod near Doster’s body.

Doster was the 15th person to be killed by a train in Washington this year.

Mountain Goat Kills Hiker in Olympic National Park

BBC News- Robert Boardman was gored in the leg by the goat while out walking on Saturday with his wife and a friend on Klahhane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

The 63-year-old was transported by US Coast Guard helicopter to a hospital in Port Angeles, where he was pronounced dead.

Rangers later killed the goat, which was known for its aggressive behaviour.

Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman, told the Peninsula Daily News that in the past rangers had tried "hazing" the ram - inducing it to be frightened of people - by shooting it with bean bags and throwing rocks.

But there had been no reports of any incidents which would have warranted killing the goat, she added.

Witnesses said Mr Boardman, his wife and friend had stopped for lunch on Klahhane Ridge when the ram appeared and moved towards them.

Mr Boardman tried to shoo the animal away but it instead attacked him. After goring the hiker the goat stood over him, and had to be pelted with rocks by a ranger before finally moving away.

Some 300 mountain goats live in Olympic National Park. Found only in North America, they usually stand about 3ft (0.9m) at the shoulder and can weigh up to 300lbs (136kg).

Court Docs: Suspect in Teen's Murder 'Obsessed with Death'

WENATCHEE, Wash. -- A man who a friend described as having an "obsession with death, dead bodies and serial killers" was ordered held on $1 million bail Thursday morning in the murder of a Wenatchee teenager.

Christopher Scott Wilson, 29, was wearing an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the waist when he appeared before a judge in Chelan County Superior Court.

He is accused of killing 17-year-old Mackenzie Cowell, whose body was found along the Columbia River in February.

Police said she had been fatally beaten, stabbed and strangled, and an autopsy report concluded that someone tried to cut off her arm after she was dead.

Cowell was a classmate with Wilson at the Academy of Hair Design, and investigators said a DNA sample from Wilson matched DNA found on a piece of duct tape recovered from where Cowell's body was found.

According to court documents, Wilson was interviewed twice about Cowell's disappearance, but said he never interacted with her and did not know who killed her.

However, other students at the school told investigators that they saw Wilson speaking with Cowell and that he told them he thought Cowell was "hot," the documents said.

When confronted with the DNA evidence during an interview with police on Wednesday, Wilson asked for a lawyer and was arrested.

The documents filed in court Tuesday indicate that several people had concerns about Wilson:


* One friend wrote a letter to police in August claiming Wilson had an "obsession with death, dead bodies and serial killers" and had once tried to choke a female friend.

* Another woman called police and said she worked with Wilson previously and that he told her he killed a guest at an Ellensburg-area hotel where he worked several years ago by strangling her with a belt, according to the court documents. Police wrote that they were not able to confirm the killing occured.

* A woman who was a student at the Academy of Hair Design with Wilson said that Wilson told her he "liked to cut people up" when he was working at funeral homes. Investigators said Wilson worked at several funeral homes in the Wenatchee area.


When detectives searched Wilson's home after he was arrested they found blood in a basement stairwell, but it was not whose blood it was.

In court on Thursday Wilson said he could not afford an attorney and was appointed a public defender. His lawyer did not challenge the bail request from prosecutors, who said Wilson is a "potential threat" to the community despite his lack of criminal history.

Cowell's mother and several friends were in the courtroom, along with Wilson's mother. None chose to speak with reporters.

At a news conference following the court hearing, investigators said they interviewed 750 people, followed up on 400 leads and tips, and collected 229 pieces of evidence over the last eight months.

"We hope that the arrest may in some way give some measure of relief to Mackenzie's family and friends," said Chief Deputy Robbin Wagg, commander of the task force investigating Cowell's murder.

Officials said they have not yet found the suspected murder weapon. In July investigators released photos of the unique type of knife they believed was used to kill Cowell, hoping it would prompt new leads in the case.

Task force spokesman Captain Doug Jones said detectives are still working to determine exactly what happened the day Cowell was murdered, and urged anyone with information about Wilson or the case to contact police.

Student Released From Hospital After Spiked-Drinks Incident

Cle Elum, Washington (CNN) -- A young woman who was briefly hospitalized after police believe she and others were targeted by spiked drinks at a party attended by Central Washington University students has been released, police said Sunday.

The girl was among 12 people, 11 of them female, taken to hospitals after the incident Friday. All have now been released. Authorities do not know what substance was used to spike the drinks, but have sent blood and urine samples to the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory.

The incident resulted in "multiple" reports of overdoses, said Cle Elum-Roslyn, Washington, Police Chief Scott Ferguson. Some of the victims reported they had consumed only one or two drinks before becoming ill, he said -- "Their level of intoxication just didn't seem to make sense."

Authorities responded about 11 p.m. Friday to a call of a girl unconscious in the back of a car in a grocery store parking lot, police said. Her friends told authorities to go to a residence in Roslyn, according to a statement from Cle Elum police. When authorities arrived at the home, they found students in varying states of consciousness.

Students at the party said several girls suddenly began vomiting and losing consciousness.

"I carried about four people downstairs," one man said.

Other partygoers told CNN affiliate KOMO on Saturday that they believe a bottle of vodka at the party had been spiked with a date-rape drug known as "roofies."

They said several people at the party used vodka from the bottle to make mixed drinks. Those who brought their own alcohol, drank beer or didn't drink any alcohol were not affected, the students told KOMO.

Ferguson said he has only heard about the vodka bottle from media reports, but said witnesses told police about their suspicions that a drug may have been placed in pre-made drinks in red cups. One partygoer told KOMO that people were talking about staying away from the drinks in the cups, and that when he took a sip of one, it made him want to vomit.

"Whatever occurred up there wasn't consensual," Ferguson told CNN on Saturday.

The party began when one student took some friends up to his parents' rental cabin about 30 minutes from the university campus in Ellensburg, police said. It grew much larger after students started texting the address to others. About 50 students attended, thought to be between the ages of 18 and 21.

Authorities do not believe the student who initiated the party was involved in spiking the drinks. Ferguson said the student is cooperating with police, who believe he became overwhelmed with the number of partygoers who showed up.

One man at the party was taken into custody when an officer entered a room of the home and found him having sex with a semi-conscious young woman, Ferguson said. Police later found the woman was the young man's girlfriend. Ferguson said she showed signs of having ingested a spiked drink and was treated and released at a hospital. The young man was detained and questioned but not booked, police said Saturday, but the investigation into the incident was ongoing.

The university said in a statement Saturday that it is "shaken and saddened" about the incident.

"CWU strictly enforces state law and university policy on underage drinking and illegal drug use," it said, adding that freshmen are educated on drug and alcohol abuse and sexual assault. "Despite our best efforts, however, students sometimes make bad choices."

Students identified as being involved with the party will have a conduct hearing that could result in an intensive education course, referral to counselors or suspension, it said. The school was planning to hold information sessions Saturday and Sunday at residence halls, the statement said.

Police and schools typically warn young people to be careful about ingesting beverages. "Roofies," a street name for Rohypnol, is a tasteless and odorless drug, Boston University says in a fact sheet on its website, and easily dissolves in beverages.

Truck Signs Used In Hunt For Lindsey Baum

MCCLEARY, Wash. -- Pictures posted on two trucks are being used in the investigation of a girl who has been missing since last summer.

Graham Trucking donated two trucks with pictures of Lindsey Baum that are parked in McCleary, where the girl lived, and a parking lot near Elma.

The truck in McCleary is parked on Simpson Avenue. The other truck is parked along State Route 8 at Heise Road east of Elma in the parking lot of Cabinet Distributors.

Volunteers and police have combed McCleary and surrounding locations but have not found evidence as to where the girl might be.

Baum was last seen in McCleary on June 26, 2009. She was 10 years old at the time of her disappearance.

Lindsey is 4 feet 9 inches tall, 80 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue hooded pullover shirt and blue jeans.

Officials have not had any new developments in the case but ask anyone with information to contact the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s office at 866-915-8299 or send an e-mail to: soadmin@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.

Escaped Killer Still at Large in Washington State

(CNN) -- A legally insane killer was on the loose in the state of Washington on Saturday, two days after he escaped during a field trip to a county fair, authorities said.

Phillip Paul was able to elude a massive manhunt in Spokane County, Washington, after escaping on Thursday, a spokesman for the sheriff's department said.

Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to be part of a trip to a county fair Thursday.

Paul, 47, escaped from the fair around noon, which launched the massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer.

A review has been launched on the incident along with the policy that allows patients to take trips, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state's Department of Social and Health Services.

Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.

"These incidents, separate and coincidental, have raised serious questions about the security readiness of our two state psychiatric hospitals," Dreyfus said.

Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head.

He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according the documents.

The extent of Paul's illness was disturbing even to mental health professionals, KREM reported.

"He's the only paranoid schizophrenic -- I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of them -- that frightened me," Dr. Frank Hardy, a licensed psychiatrist, says in one of the documents, according to KREM. "The first time I took one look at him -- and I've never done this before or since -- I asked the jailer to remain in the room while I examined him.

"I believe he would respond to his delusions and his voices again" if released, Hardy wrote.

But Paul "Coyote" Neumann, a disc jockey at Spokane radio station Kix 96-FM, has an entirely different view of the escapee. Neumann has known Paul for 12 years through volunteering at the hospital and correspondence by mail.

Paul is a talented artist, Neumann told KREM-TV.

"I was just amazed by his ability. I always took him as a savant," Neumann said. "I never knew that he had murdered somebody until three or four or five years later."

Neumann described Paul as a "gentle soul."

"I've never seen him raise his voice; I've never seen him get frustrated; I've never seen nothing but kindness from him," he told KREM.

"I get mixed emotions because I do see the sweet, softer side of this individual, but I've never seen him unsupervised, I've never seen him not medicated," Neumann said. "But that's not to say in another 12, 15, 20 hours without those medications that he doesn't revert to those demons."

Family Files $25 Million Claim over Deputy's Tackle

SEATTLE --- The family of an innocent man rendered comatose when a sheriff's deputy slammed into him, sending him headfirst into a tile wall in downtown Seattle, filed a $25 million claim Tuesday against the county.

The claim brought by the wife and parents of Christopher Harris, 29, of Edmonds, "will likely be followed by a lawsuit" unless it is resolved within 60 days, said Simeon J. Osborn, a lawyer who filed it with the county's Risk Management Division.

"He is in a coma, has irreversible brain damage, and will never recover," Osborn wrote in the claim. "He cannot walk, talk, recognize his family, or engage in the activities of daily living."

Medical bills are approaching $1 million and the cost of 24-hour care will run into the millions, Osborn said at a news conference.

Harris has been in a "vigil coma" since taking a hit from Deputy Matthew Paul, 26, who outweighed him by 100 pounds, early on May 10. Surveillance video from the Cinerama movie theater showed Matthews racing toward Paul, who appeared to have stopped with his arms outspread, and of giving him a shove that knocked the smaller man eight feet and through the air into the base of the wall.

The claim, which lists 24 witnesses, is based on sheriff's office training, policies and procedures, as well as on the conduct of Paul and Deputy Joseph Eshom, 28, during the chase.

Last month county prosecutors declined to file charges against Paul, saying there was no legal basis for a criminal charge.

At a news conference Tuesday, Sim Osborn, an attorney for the Harris family, called the deputy's actions "inexcusably brutal."

"The graphic video still haunts the harris family, and is a glaring look at the brutal actions by the sheriff's deputy," Osborn said.

King County sheriff spokesman John Urquhart said the sheriff's office could not comment directly on the legal claim, but maintains that the deputy did not indent to injure Harris.

Urquhart called the incident a tragedy for Harris, his family and the deputy. He said the deputy's actions were justifiable because witnesses identified Harris as a suspect in an assault.

Witnesses said the incident began when several men, some covered in blood, ran into a convenience store where Harris had been shopping. Deputies chasing down the suspect were mistakenly told by witnesses that Harris was the man they wanted. Harris had not been in the fight, but he ran.

The surveillance video shows the end of the chase as moviegoers are exiting from the Cinerama theater, about 2½ blocks from where the chase began.

Harris comes into view, makes a slight turn and slows down as Paul gives him a fierce shove, knocking him off his feet. Harris' head slams into the base of a tiled wall outside the movie house.

Two witnesses say Harris seemed to be stopping and said, "I don't have anything, I didn't steal anything," just before he was hit by Paul, who weighs about 270 pounds, about 100 pounds more than Harris.

But Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's office, said last month that since Christopher Harris was identified by witnesses to officers as a suspect in a violent crime, "The law provides that an officer 'shall not be held criminally liable for using force without malice and with a good faith belief that such act is justifiable."

"He ran for several blocks after he was told to stop by uniformed officers. As the deputy caught up to him, the deputy used a standard take down procedure. As a result, no criminal charge can be filed."

Sara Jorgenson, Harris' wife of two years and constant companion since they became high school sweethearts 13 years ago, told reporters her husband was not the type to flee from police.

"He wouldn't have ran," she said. "He didn't know who was chasing him."

Harris, now housed in a congregant care center, breathes entirely on his own and sometimes opens his eyes but cannot focus, talk or otherwise communicate, a condition from which doctors believe he will never recover, Osborn said.

"It's not hospice care," he lawyer added. "He's not dying."

Jorgenson said she had quit work to be at his side daily and hoped eventually to be able to bring him home.

"I sit next to the bed all day. I talk to him. I read to him," Jorgenson said, dabbing the corner of her eyes with a tissue. "I make sure that he's getting taken care of ... anything that you can do."

FBI Joins Search for Missing 10-Year-Old-Girl

Seattle Times- FBI agents have joined the search for a 10-year-old Grays Harbor County girl missing since Friday night.

Lindsey Baum was last seen walking home from a friend's house about six blocks from her home in the small town of McCleary.

Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott says law-enforcement officers were canvassing the city Sunday. He says search-and-rescue volunteers and others combed the area Saturday where the girl was last seen but "didn't yield anything."

Scott says there's no evidence of foul play, but his agency is "beginning to investigate with that possibility in mind."

Officers were re-interviewing neighbors to see whether any clues had been missed in earlier canvassing by volunteers, Scott said.

The girl's mother reported her missing Friday night.

"I just need my daughter home," Melissa Baum told The Aberdeen Daily World.

She said she's afraid someone has taken her daughter away from McCleary, a town of about 1,500.

McCleary Police Chief George Crumb told the newspaper that while his department hoped she ran off, "she's been gone far too long."

"This is a small town. These things don't happen. And yet here they are," Melissa McCann, a family friend told KOMO-TV. "She comes from her friend's [house] a lot, so it doesn't make sense that she didn't show up at home. We're just baffled."

Rogue Minutemen Leader Held in Fatal Home Invasion

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Raul Flores thought federal agents had barged with guns drawn into his home in Arivaca, Arizona, in the middle of the night.

The woman and two men wore uniforms and identified themselves as U.S. Marshals. They claimed the house was surrounded. They said they were looking for an escaped prisoner, Flores' wife told a 911 dispatcher.

But there was no backup waiting outside, and no fugitive. The marshals were imposters.

They had targeted Flores because they suspected he was a drug trafficker and they wanted to rob and kill him, according to the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

As the intruders searched his home, Flores asked one of the men why his handgun was taped. The man responded by shooting and killing Flores.

"Someone just came in and shot my daughter and husband," Flores' wife frantically told 911. She tells the police operator that she was shot and left for dead with her husband, Raul Flores, 29, and daughter Brisenia, 9, who were both shot in the head.

Police are not releasing the woman's name to protect her identity. But her 911 call, released to the media by the Pima County Sheriff's Department, tells the story of a deadly home invasion by a rogue band of impostors.

As she describes the initial attack, the intruders return to the house. The door can be heard opening.

"They are coming back in! They are coming back in!" the caller screams. She has armed herself with her husband's handgun.

"Get the f--- out," she barks. The order is followed by the explosive sound of gunfire traded as the wounded woman and her would-be killers fire on each other. A man -- one of the intruders -- is hit and groans loudly. The attackers retreat and leave the woman alive and alone with her slain family.

Twelve days later police have the "marshals" in custody on charges of first-degree murder, burglary and aggravated assault. Police identified the suspects as Shawna Forde, 41, of Buena Vista, Arizona; Jason Eugene Bush, 34, of Kingman, Arizona; and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, of Tucson, Arizona.

As police put her into a car, Forde told reporters, "I did not do it." The Pima County public defender's office, which represents Forde, Bush and Gaxiola, did not return CNN's calls requesting comment.

Authorities from five different police departments in three states are investigating crimes allegedly involving the trio. Forde's arrest has had even greater reverberations across a community of private citizens who believe the government is not adequately protecting the nation's borders.

Forde was a one-time member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a citizens group whose self-described mission is to secure the U.S. border, before she started her own smaller border enforcement organization. The accusations against her have given more fuel to Minutemen critics who say the groups dangerously blur the lines between law enforcement and vigilantism.

Forde was well known in anti-immigration circles. She ran a failed campaign for City Council in her hometown of Everett, Washington, that touted her connections to the Minutemen. She posted videos on YouTube of her border patrols and was an outspoken fixture at Minutemen Washington meetings and rallies in Washington state.

But even among this gung-ho group of self-styled border warriors, Forde was extreme, both Minutemen members and their critics agreed.

Washington human rights advocate Luis Moscoso said he had a run-in with Forde during a protest he attended at a 2007 Minutemen conference in Bellingham, Washington. While other Minutemen engaged in a dialogue, Moscoso remembered Forde shouting insults at the protesters.

Moscoso later was shocked, he said, to find his photograph and address on Forde's Web site. "It wasn't a bull's-eye but it was close enough," he said. The Web site was taken down after the arrests, so CNN cannot independently confirm Moscoso's account.

Eventually, Forde's tactics alienated even the most stalwart proponents of border security. "The screaming, hollering, calling names, we don't do that," said outgoing Washington state Minutemen president Joseph Ray. "She broke standard operating procedure too many times, she was too damn unreliable."

The Minutemen kicked Forde out of their ranks in 2007, Ray said. Around the same time, police said, Forde became embroiled in several bizarre incidents that remain under investigation in Everett.

Forde's then-husband was shot in the abdomen by an unknown male assailant at their home. The couple later divorced. Forde next said she was the victim of a sexual assault. Later, Forde was found wounded in an alley where she told police she had been shot in the arm by an attacker.

Speaking to the media about the attacks, Forde said she was being targeted by Mexican drug cartels for her work guarding the border. According To Sgt. Robert Goetz, spokesman for the Everett Police Department, Forde's sister and mother told police something very different. They believed she invented or played a part in the violence against her and her family.

Cast out from the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, Forde formed her own organization called the Minutemen American Defense. Chuck Stonex was a member. Despite "her cloudy reputation" in Minutemen circles, Stonex said, he and Forde got along well.

Still, he said he noticed during an operation monitoring the border in Arizona with her in 2008 that Forde was well funded for the leader of a tiny group on the fringe of the Minutemen movement. "She always had a lot of cash," he said.

Cash was what led Forde, Bush and Gaxiola to Raul Flores' house on May 30, 2009, said Dawn Barkman, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff. Flores had a reputation for involvement in the narcotics trade along the border, Barkman said, and Forde devised a plan to bluff her way into his home and rob and kill him to finance her border patrol group.

According to Barkman, it was Forde's plan but Bush allegedly fired the fatal shots inside the Flores home. It was not Bush's first slaying, police say.

After his arrest in the shooting of Raul Flores, police in Wenatchee, Washington, charged Bush with the fatal stabbing of Hector Manuel Lopez Partida. Homeless and traveling through Wenatchee, Lopez Partida was killed in 1997, stabbed seven times, apparently as he slept on the ground next to a grain silo.

Police in Wenatchee found a blood-soaked shirt near where Lopez was killed. Eight years later, advances in forensics testing indicated that Bush's DNA was on the shirt, a police affidavit said.

Bush has "long-standing ties to Aryan Nations groups," the affidavit said, and he allegedly bragged to an unidentified police informant about killing "a Mexican," saying he and another man "stomped" and "stabbed" the man and "left [him] to bleed out."

After the shooting at Flores' home, the crime wave continued, police said. A couple who are friends of Forde's mother was robbed at gunpoint of their $12,000 inheritance by men pretending to be U.S. Marshals, said Sgt. John Hubbard of the Shasta County Sheriffs Department. The victims, Hubbard said, identified Bush as one of the gunmen.

Hubbard said police believe Forde helped carry out the robbery.

In the next town over, Hubbard said, the home belonging to Forde's brother was robbed on the same day.

The alleged crime spree leaves Forde's former compatriots feeling exposed and under attack. Stonex said he last saw Forde and Bush right after the shootout at the Flores home. Stonex helped patch a bullet wound to Bush's calf. "They said they were jumped by border bandits," he said.

He said had he known about their alleged killing of Flores and his daughter, Stonex would never have had anything to do with Forde. Now, he said, he and other Minutemen have been forced to cancel border patrol operations and wait for the scrutiny to die down.

"It's given us a lot of grief," said Stonex, "I'd build her gallows if I could."

Man Who Strangled, Stuffed Woman In Trunk Convicted Of Murder

KENT, Wash. -- A 25-year-old man who strangled a woman in the parking lot of the nursing home he worked at and then stuffed her body into the trunk of her car was convicted of murder Wednesday.

The body of 75-year-old Jane Britt was found on March 19, 2008 in the trunk of her car parked at Garden Terrace Care Facility in Federal Way, where Joseph Njonge worked as a certified nursing assistant.

Britt was believed to have been visiting her husband at the facility the day before her body was discovered. He died two weeks before the trial began.

The jury deliberated the case for more than a day and a half at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom said the jury couldn't agree on first-degree murder, so Njonge was convicted of murder in the second-degree.

"This case was difficult because unfortunately only Mrs. Britt knows exactly what happened that night, along with the defendant, so since the jury couldn't know exactly why he killed her I think that certainly factored to a difficulty of convicting him of murder in the first degree," Carlstrom said.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said that Britt fought hard against her assailant "over a prolonged period of time" and was strangled by Njonge, who used a ligature and came at her from behind.

It was DNA from skin cells found under the victim's fingernails that led to the Njonge's capture, Satterberg said. Britt's husband's credit card was also found in Njonge's pocket.

The Britt family said through the prosecutor that they are “satisfied” with the verdict.

Njonge will be sentenced next month and could be sentenced from 10 to 20 years in prison.

Naked vandal trashes Seattle church

SEATTLE - Services were moved to the parking lot of a Rainier Beach church after a naked man smashed through a window Saturday, spattering HIV-positive blood inside and leaving a trail of destruction through the house of worship.

Officials believe the 46-year-old suspect was high on PCP during his unholy rampage through the Unity Church of God in Christ - and now the church interior is considered a bio-hazard because of the tainted blood inside.

The bizarre incident left church members in shock, but now they're learning it may be more than just a coincidence - because, as it turns out, the suspect's brother killed himself there on church property on the same Sunday 29 years ago.

Neighbors say it was about 4 a.m. Saturday when the man hurled his naked body against a window and smashed through.

The jagged, broken glass left cuts all over his body that created a trail of blood spatters and smears throughout the interior of the church.

The pastor, Rev. James Hicks, says church members started cleaning up the mess until they learned that the man is HIV-positive and has hepatitis C - possibly creating a bio-hazard inside the house of worship.

The rampage went from room to room - a picture gallery was torn from the walls, a trophy case was broken open, mirrors were shattered - and blood was smeared on walls, fixtures and furniture.

"Just to see (the pictures) torn up on the floor. It was really, really really devastating to us," says the pastor.

"The thing is that he cut himself, and he had blood all over the trophy case, blood where the mirror was, blood around the doors."

The naked vandal triggered an alarm, and police arrested him outside a short time later. He's now in jail for investigation of burglary.

Volunteers got busy cleaning up until they realized the potential danger. "They said, 'We don't suggest that you do this clean-up,'" Hicks says.

The church scheduled an outdoor service in the parking lot for Sunday morning after they realized they could not use the sanctuary.

"That just knocked the wind out of our sails, cause we knew then we had to do something different," Hicks said.

But church members say they have already forgiven the man, whose brother hung himself from a tree on church property on the first Sunday of June 29 years ago.

"I don't think it's a coincidence, and I believe that my neighbor said he heard him saying, 'I love you, I love you,' and he heard all that tearing up and commotion," explains church member Angelia Hicks-Maxie.

At the outdoor Sunday morning service, the pastor remembered the man in his prayers.

"Oh God, we ask that you look upon the young man who did this - amen. Because our business is forgiveness, yes, Lord."

Church member Billy Williams says, "The Bible says things work together for the good. And we don't understand it but our business is forgiveness and soul-saving, and some strange way God will get the glory out of this."

Now, the reaching out is both ways.

"His brother actually called," says the pastor, "and apologized on behalf of his brother so the forgiveness, the emotions are already starting to the healing can begin."

Domestic Dispute Leads to Ricin Investigation

EVERETT, Washington (CNN) -- Police and federal authorities blocked off a suburban street Thursday about an hour north of Seattle, Washington, while searching a home for the deadly poison ricin.

Hazmat crews entered the home while officials assured the public that there was no threat from the substance, which is made from castor beans and can be fatal if injected, inhaled or consumed.

"It is contained in this house. It's not a danger to the neighborhood," said Roberta Burroughs, spokeswoman for the FBI's Seattle office. "Why does someone need to have a potent, toxic poison? There's really no good reason. It's against the law to produce or possess it. If it turns out to be ricin, there will be federal charges."

Authorities expected testing to determine on Friday whether the material they found in the house was ricin, Burroughs said. Agents had ruled out any connection to terrorism, she said.

Police were first called to the home Monday for a domestic disturbance.

"When we arrived, we discovered a female outside the residence who was pretty bloodied up. She looked like she had gone through quite an event," Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz told CNN.

As officers tended to the woman, Goetz said, other officers entered the home and found her husband on the floor, "suffering from some kind of medical condition."

The couple, whose names have not released, were taken to a hospital. On Wednesday, the woman returned home, Goetz said.

Goetz said the woman found "suspicious items" in her husband's office and contacted authorities.
"They recognized the items as possible ricin or items that could be developed into ricin," Goetz said.

Everett police notified the FBI, who obtained a search warrant and brought ricin experts from Washington, D.C.

Neither the women, nor the officers who entered the house, have shown signs of ricin poisoning, Goetz said. The husband remains hospitalized with an unknown condition.

At the house late Thursday, FBI agents and police came and went as neighbors watched anxiously from the street. None of the observers said they knew the couple.

"They really kept to themselves," said a woman who called herself Patty, shaking her head at the flurry of law-enforcement activity.

'In 4 Seconds Someone Died And I Got Shot,' Survivor Says

LAKEWOOD, Wash. -- A man who was shot with the same bullet that killed an armored car guard described the scene at a Wal-Mart where the shooting and robbery took place.

Wilbert Pina was in the store Tuesday with his 15-month-old son waiting to cash a check when he heard a bang and felt a bullet tearing into his shoulder.

The impact of the gunshot knocked Pina forward over the shopping cart where his son sat.

"I was just thinking of my son and my wife and my family and wondering if I was going to see them again," said Pina. "In four seconds someone died and I got shot," Pina told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Richard Thompson.

Shot in the back of his shoulder, Pina turned to see a man dying on the floor and another man waving a gun. Pina showed Thompson how he tried to protect his son Emmet.

"I saw the gun waving and I picked him up out of the chair and held him against my body," said Pina.

Pina said in that moment, he believed he might die but had to save his son.

"Assuming the worst -- if he shoots us I'm going to be shot. I don’t' care. At least I'll fall on my son and he'll be OK," Pina told Thompson.

The gunman fled with a bag of cash leaving armored car guard Kurt Husted dead of a gunshot wound to the head and Pina with the same bullet lodged inside his shoulder as he held his son tightly.

"I started crying because this guy could have killed me and my son with one single bullet," he said.

Pina said doctors were unable to remove the bullet from his shoulder.

Though in pain, Pina said he is grateful he and his son survived.

Deaths at Thai Resort Vex Family and Investigators

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- What started as a romantic Southeast Asia vacation for a Seattle couple ended with Ryan Kells preparing Friday to return from Bangkok carrying the ashes of his fiancee to give to her family in California.

"It's such a shock," Robert St. Onge told CNN about the death of his sister, Jill, who had been traveling with the man she planned to marry. "There was no way to hear last words or even see her because she has already been cremated."
The couple had been visiting Thailand at the end of a three-month journey during which the two had become engaged.

On April 26 in her online journal, the 27-year-old woman described the surroundings near where the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, "The Beach," was filmed.

"Hey hey! We're in koh phi phi right now. It's off the west coast of Thailand about a 2 hour boat ride from krabi. So amazing... just drinking eating and living so cheaply and having a blast. Food, drink, good books, sun and warm waters... What else do ya need?," St. Onge blogged.
But on May 2, Kells found St. Onge, who had told him earlier that she had not been feeling well, vomiting in their room at the Laleena guesthouse on Phi Phi island. He put her into a shopping cart and searched for help.

"She couldn't breathe. She was vomiting," Kells, 31, told CNN affiliate KGO-TV. "I tried to run her to a hospital and she ended up passing within, maybe, 12 hours of being sick."
Watch fiance discuss death of bride-to-be »

Robert St. Onge said his sister had been healthy and that her sudden death is a mystery.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that another tourist, a 22-year-old Norwegian woman, died at the same resort the same weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Thailand said.

The manager of the Laleena guesthouse has said in published reports that he believes the women's deaths came from drinking heavily.

Norwegian media reported that the Norweigan woman could have been a victim of food poisoning. Newspapers in Thailand have questioned whether both women were poisoned, quoting police sources.

In Internet postings on a Web site created to update friends and family on the tragedy, Kells also described feeling ill at the hotel and said that he believed something in their room had made the couple sick.

Kells also said he had spent less time in their room than his fiancee.

The U.S. Embassy in Thailand has been working with the St. Onge family to determine what happened.

"The police know we are concerned about this, but as with any investigation, it could take some time," said embassy spokesman Michael Turner.

Robert St. Onge said Thai authorities told his family that the inquiry could take four to eight weeks. He said his family has been given tissue samples so they can have testing done by an independent laboratory.

At Shadowland, the Seattle, Washington, restaurant where Jill St. Onge used to work as a bartender, a corner of the bar is filled with pictures, candles and postcards from the couple.

"Greetings from Phnom Penh," one from Jill reads, "We love you guys."

Corruption, Corruption, Corruption!

Judge cited in prostitution case-
PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -- A local judge accused of harassing and patronizing a prostitute has been found guilty of violating the Code of Judicial Conduct by the state Commission on the Judicial Conduct, according to a statement of charges released Wednesday.

The commission found Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht engaged in illegal or otherwise indecorous and inappropriate behavior, namely patronizing prostitutes, harassing or threatening persons whom he believed were discussing his interactions with and payment of prostitutes, using racist language in public conversation and engaging in unfair campaign conduct.

The commission has charged the judge with paying a male prostitute to perform sexual acts on numerous occasions over a five-year period beginning in 1997, when the prostitute was still a minor. Hecht is also charged with patronizing two other male prostitutes from 2000 and 2002, and from 2007 to 2008. In all three cases, the sexual activities took place in Hecht's office, the commission said.

The commission said in 1996, Hecht provided legal services in exchanges for sexual activity with a male client.

Hecht is also charged with using the "N" word in a conversation in 2007, as well as stealing his opponent's campaign signs during the 2008 judicial campaign.

Hecht has 21 days to file a written response to the charges, the commission said. A lack of response will be interpreted as an admission of guilt.

The commission, which work to protect the integrity of the judicial process, can recommend the suspension of a judge to the Supreme Court.

Last month Hecht, 58, temporarily stepped down from the bench after pleading not guilty to felony charges.

Prosecutors said Hecht threatened to kill a 24-year-old man, whom Hecht had paid for sex years ago, in Tacoma on Aug. 30, shortly after he was elected to the $148,000-a-year job. Hecht also paid a 20-year-old man for sex on numerous occasions, prosecutors said.

But Hecht last month told KOMO News all the allegations are simply not true.

"Looking forward to being vindicated. I'm leaving it the hands of my consul and I think a lot of facts will come," he said.

The presiding judge for the county said Hecht is cooperating with authorities, and voluntarily decided to take a leave.

"We are very respectful of the fact that there's an election process that put him in this position. At the same time we are also concerned about the appearance here and the integrity of the court. And that's why he stepped away at this time and we agreed," said Presiding Pierce County Judge Bryan Choshcoff.

Hecht had only been hearing civil cases since he became a judge. He was to see out the remainder of the cases currently before him.

Hecht's trial is scheduled to start on June 9.

Police: Husband Saw Wife With Another Man Before Killing Kids

(CNN) -- A father who shot and killed his five children in their Washington state home before killing himself had argued with his wife over another man before the shootings, police said.

Authorities found the children, ages 7 to 16, dead in their Pierce County home Saturday afternoon, and the father, James Harrison, was found dead inside his SUV in adjacent King County, Detective Ed Troyer told CNN Radio Sunday. Police said Harrison committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle.

Troyer said that on Friday night, Harrison and his 16-year-old daughter found his wife with another man. The couple argued, and then Harrison and his daughter returned to the family home near Tacoma without his wife, Troyer said.

At the home, Harrison and the children held a family meeting with other relatives, Troyer said.

The relatives left, and later that night Harrison shot all five of his children -- four girls and one boy -- as they slept in their beds, Troyer said.

The children's mother was located after the shootings and was being counseled by a chaplain, Troyer said.

The family massacre comes just two months after a Los Angeles, California, father killed his wife, their five young children and himself after he and his wife were fired from their jobs.

And police are still investigating another family shooting last week, in which a Santa Clara, California, man gunned down six of his family members -- killing two adults and three children and wounding his wife -- before committing suicide.