Man, 26, arrested in fatal shooting

Snohomish County deputies were questioning a 26-year-old man Monday night in connection with a fatal shooting early Monday in the parking lot of an apartment complex near South Everett.

The victim's name was not released.

The shooting occurred in the Brittany Court Apartments parking lot, in the 12600 block of Eighth Avenue West, in unincorporated Snohomish County, said Rich Niebusch, a spokesman for the county Sheriff's Office.

The victim died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, Niebusch said.

The shooting was the third violent crime in the area in the past several weeks.

The previous weekend there was a stabbing on the same street, and a month ago a 19-year-old man died in a shooting outside a nearby condominium, Niebusch said.

Bellevue

Man, 74, was victim of smoke inhalation

A man who died in a house fire Saturday night was the victim of smoke inhalation, the King County Medical Examiner's Office said.

Phillip Chaplin Nutting, 74, suffered burns over 25 percent of his body in the fire at his Bridle Trails neighborhood home, the Medical Examiner said.

Nine of Nutting's cats also died. One cat survived.

The fire appeared to be accidental, but the exact cause had not been determined, said Fire Capt. Martin L. La Fave.

Damage, confined largely to the upper floor of the 2,160-square-foot house a few blocks south of Bridle Trails State Park, was estimated at $300,000.

The surviving cat was turned over to King County Animal Control.

Ailing teen faces arrest in shooting

A teenager recuperating from a gunshot wound will be arrested in an apparently unrelated shooting death as soon as he is released from the hospital, authorities said.

A police guard was posted Friday outside the hospital room of the man, 18, who is believed to be responsible for the killing of Jeffery Mario Norris-Romine, deputy prosecutor Gerald T. Costello said.

Norris-Romine, 21, was fatally shot Aug. 21 near Helen B. Stafford Elementary School in the city's south end.

On Wednesday a police sergeant reading an investigative report about the shooting of the teen noticed that the name of the victim also had been cited in the homicide and that the teenager fit the description of the man who had shot Norris-Romine, Officer Mark W. Fulghum said.

The shooting apparently resulted from a traffic dispute, Fulghum said.

Kenmore

Boy, 14, drowns in Lake Washington

A 14-year-old boy drowned in Lake Washington on Monday, KING-TV reported. The boy had been swimming with his two brothers around 6 p.m. at O.O. Denny Park near Kenmore.

The teen was last seen swimming about 75 feet from shore and was under water for about 40 minutes before emergency crews could reach him, KING-TV reported.

Portland

9 injured as jet boat crashes into piling

A jet boat crashed into a piling near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers in North Portland late Sunday, injuring five adults and four children, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

Seven of the nine were sent to hospitals, the Sheriff's Office said. One person suffered from possibly cracked ribs, one was bleeding from the head, and one may have had a broken leg. The names of the injured were not released.

The boat reportedly was traveling 25 to 30 mph when it struck a piling that had been exposed because of the low water conditions.

Times staff and news services