Fist Gets Stuck In Her Mouth

Crimes scenes from around the city:

Seattle Center: A Kent woman required several stitches to close a wound she suffered when a man's fist got stuck in her mouth during a recent disturbance at a high school graduation ceremony.

The incident began when a man and a woman in the audience began arguing. They left to continue the dispute in a hallway. Witnesses said the woman swung at the man but hit someone else on the head with her elbow. When the first man put his hand up to protect himself, his fist somehow got caught in her mouth.

The injury occurred when he pulled it out, police said.

Conflicting stories made it impossible to tell what happened so no one was arrested, and the 34-year-old woman, was sent to a hospital to get her lip stitched up.

South Seattle: Some thieves no longer are content to pry open the coin boxes on washers and dryers to get at the cash.

Police say that twice in recent weeks, someone has dismantled the entire top of a machine and carted it off somewhere to filch the coins in private.

Damage to the two machines was between $600 and $700.

Columbia City: Her first clue of trouble was the missing door.

A woman returning to her residence on South Ferdinand Street discovered that someone had unscrewed the hinges and her front door was missing, along with several items inside.

South Seattle: Someone committed a drive-by shooting the other day on a moped.

Two young men were walking in the 4300 block of South Webster Street when a third individual on a motor-driven bike drove by and fired several shots from a handgun, the victims reported.

Officers later found the moped but could not locate the suspect. No one was hurt.

West Seattle: Two young men were jailed recently after they fired a gun from a car at West Seattle High School where a dance was letting out.

No one was hit, but police reported that there were about 200 young people leaving the dance when the shots were fired from the car, which then sped away.

Officers stopped the car a short distance away and arrested two men, 20 and 19, releasing two others who were in the vehicle. A .32-caliber pistol was recovered from the car.

Beacon Hill: A man wearing orange pants, a hooded green jacket, sunglasses and armed with a shotgun escaped after holding up the Asian Express market, 2122 14th Ave. S.

A search by a police dog failed to locate the man, about 30, who had a calm voice when he ordered a clerk to hand over the cash. Witnesses told police that the robber may be one of the store's frequent customers.

Downtown: A man lost more than the cash in his pockets during a street robbery.

The victim's right pants leg was torn off when three people accosted him and grabbed the $15 in his right front pants pocket.

Rainier Beach: A woman was taken into custody after hitting her 10-year-old son with a baseball bat.

The mother explained that she was upset with her son, who had been expelled from school. She said she picked up the bat when he refused to clean up his room, telling her: "I don't have to listen to you."

The two struggled and the mother ended up hitting her son in the shoulder and knee with the bat in a half-swing, police were told. The boy was not seriously injured, and the mother was released after an interview at the South Precinct. Child Protective Services is investigating.