1 killed as car, ambulance crash

RENTON — A collision between an ambulance transporting a heart-attack patient and a car driven by a woman taking her granddaughter to McDonald's left the woman dead and the little girl seriously injured yesterday.

The 64-year-old woman drove out of a McDonald's parking lot near Valley Medical Center into the path of the Tri-Med ambulance, authorities said.

The ambulance struck the car on the driver's side. The car driver was killed and her passenger, a 7-year-old girl, was taken to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries.

The drivers were not immediately identified.

The heart-attack patient was transported to the hospital by another ambulance.

Davis re-elected chairman of state transportation panel

SEATTLE — Aubrey Davis has been re-elected chairman of the state Transportation Commission.

Davis, 85, was first appointed in 1992 and has been reappointed ever since. While Davis' current term has expired, Gov. Gary Locke has said he can serve as long as he likes.

The one-year term as chairman ends next summer.

The seven-member commission adopts policies for the state Department of Transportation and appoints its secretary.

Man charged with stealing vehicles, ramming 3 cars

SEATTLE — King County prosecutors yesterday charged a 42-year-old Federal Way man with stealing a U-Haul truck, ramming three cars on southbound Interstate 5, then stealing another car — with a woman still inside — after its driver stopped to help after the crash.

David Granacki, who was charged with vehicular assault, felony hit-and-run and unlawful imprisonment, has eight convictions for driving without a license or with a suspended license. Bail was set at $250,000.

The incident occurred Saturday night. Charging papers say that after Granacki stole a key from the U-Haul store in South Seattle, he took the truck and hit the three cars near Southcenter Mall, at about 10:30 p.m.

When the other driver stopped to help, charging papers say, Granacki pretended to be a concerned motorist and directed the driver to the scene; Granacki then jumped into the running car. The woman inside had been calling 911.

Granacki ditched the car about a half-hour later on Highway 99, about two miles away, where police eventually caught him.

Plea deal reached in pair's scuffle with Seattle police

SEATTLE — The son of the man imprisoned for hitting former Seattle Mayor Paul Schell with a megaphone will not serve jail time over a scuffle with Seattle police last summer.

Kwame Omari Garrett, 26, and his friend Kenyatto Allah, 30, this week accepted a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to obstructing police, a gross misdemeanor, in exchange for deferred six-month jail sentences, prosecutors said. They had been charged with felony assault in the August 2002 incident.

King County Superior Court Judge Ken Comstock ordered the men to stay out of trouble for six months or risk being sent to jail. Prosecutors alleged Garrett and Allah, also known as Kenyatto McThomas, punched an officer after they were stopped for jaywalking downtown. But supporters alleged the pair had been harassed because they are black.

Garrett's father, Omari Tahir Garrett, is serving a 21-month sentence at the state prison at Monroe for striking Schell during a festival in 2001. He is due to be released in December.

Unidentified body is found in Snohomish River in Everett

EVERETT — Everett police are trying to identify a man whose body was found yesterday in the Snohomish River. A woman reported seeing the body in a section of the river near her home in the 3800 block of Railway Avenue.

Everett police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said it doesn't appear that the man was the victim of violence.

Times staff and news services