Boy, 14, drowns in Lake Meridian
KENT — A 14-year-old boy drowned yesterday while trying to swim across a narrow section of Lake Meridian.
Witnesses told police that Morgan M. Wilcox, who lives near the lake, was swimming from one dock to another about 2:15 p.m. when he raised his hands and called for help. Friends couldn't reach him before he slipped under.
A half-hour later, a man with snorkeling equipment found Wilcox, but efforts to revive him failed. The lake is about 300 feet wide and 30 feet deep where the boy tried to cross.
West Seattle resident shootsman who entered his home
SEATTLE — A man was shot in the leg late Monday by a West Seattle resident who returned home to find his door forced open and several people inside.
The wounded man was taken to Harborview Medical Center; he was also arrested.
Police said the homeowner was struck from behind when he arrived at his house on 19th Avenue Southwest about 11:45 p.m. He fired three or four shots, then retreated outside.
When police arrived, they found a wounded man in the kitchen. The others were gone.
Woman fatally shot whilewalking with her sister
WHITE CENTER — A woman was fatally shot by someone in a passing car early yesterday while she was on a pre-dawn walk.
Crystal Vaughn, 29, died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle about two hours after the 3 a.m. shooting.
The King County Sheriff's Office said Vaughn and her sister were on a sidewalk near 15th Avenue Southwest and Southwest 102nd Street when one or more shots were fired.
No motive for the attack was known, and police did not know if it was random. Vaughn's sister was not injured.
Police seek leads in assaultof teen on Interurban Trail
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Police are looking for leads in the sexual assault of a 13-year-old Edmonds girl who was attacked Saturday while walking on the Interurban Trail.
Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the attacker was the same man who raped a woman in roughly the same spot several weeks ago.
Police said the girl in Saturday's assault was walking south on the trail when a man came up behind her and clasped a hand over her mouth. He dragged her into woods and started to put his hand in her pants but then said she was "not the person," she told police, and ordered her to run.
The 31-year-old woman in the earlier attack was grabbed around midnight. Hours later, police arrested a man who matched her description of the attacker. He is now out on bail and has not yet been charged.
Canadian woman appearsnaked at her trial for arson
VANCOUVER, B.C. — An 81-year-old member of a Christian sect appeared naked in court yesterday to stand trial for arson.
Mary Braun, who belongs to the Sons of Freedom, a sect of the Doukhobor religious faith, is accused of damaging a community-college computer lab early this month near Nelson, in the southeastern Kootenay region of British Columbia. She has pleaded not guilty.
Braun declined to wear clothes at the hearing for religious reasons, according to witnesses.
The Sons of Freedom waged a campaign for Doukhobor "purity" in the 1950s that included burning their homes, destroying government and private property, and parading naked down the streets. The Sons of Freedom are viewed as an extremist sect of the Doukhobors, Russian Christians who emigrated to western Canada in the late 1800s.
Transformer explodesat Priest Rapids Dam
MATTAWA, Grant County — A transformer exploded at Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River last night.
The explosion caused no power failures for customers around the Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District spokesman Gary Garnant told the Yakima Herald-Republic. Power from other dams was rerouted to customers in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. There were no injuries.
The transformer, valued at $2 million, sustained heavy exterior damage, and Garnant could not say whether it was salvageable. The cause of the explosion was unknown.
The damage will reduce the amount of power the dam can produce, but other dams will make it up, Garnant said.
Information is from Seattle Times staff and news services.