Boy, 16, shot in head; 2 men in car sought

A 16-year-old Seattle boy was shot in the head in southwest Seattle late Sunday after an altercation with two men.

Police said the boy was among five juveniles, all on foot, who got into a disturbance with two men in a car at South Cloverdale Street and 14th Avenue South. When the teens walked away, the car made a U-turn to follow them. One of the men in the car then fired a gunshot through the window, police said.

The injured boy, whose name was not released, was in critical condition early yesterday at Harborview Medical Center.

Police are looking for the suspects, two men in their mid-20s driving a late '90s green Ford Thunderbird.

Seattle

Suspicious powder closes transfer station

Hazardous-material crews with the Seattle Fire Department were called to the Wallingford Transfer Station yesterday morning when employees saw white powder coming out as recycled glass was being crushed.

The transfer station was evacuated and several blocks surrounding the facility at 1350 N. 34th St. were cordoned off as hazmat crews investigated, said Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick.

Crews couldn't determine what the material was, but they ruled that it was not hazardous, she said.

Sedro-Woolley

Man dies, 6 hurt in Hwy. 20 collision

A 79-year-old Everett man died and six people were injured in a head-on collision involving an SUV and a pickup Sunday on Highway 20.

The eastbound pickup was hauling a trailer loaded with construction material, the State Patrol said. The load caused the truck to weave out of control, first off the road to the right and then back across the center divider, where it struck a westbound SUV. Both vehicles were destroyed in the accident at milepost 68 east of Sedro-Woolley.

Mark Howard, a passenger in the SUV, was dead at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, the State Patrol said.

The SUV's Everett driver, Doris Howard, 78, was in stable condition yesterday at Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon. Two other passengers — Pauline Hubbard, 84, of Bellevue, and Leo Billings, 88, of Spokane — were in serious condition yesterday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Pickup driver Richard Sweeten, 34, of Burlington, and one of his passengers, Raymond Sweeten, 65, of Shelton, were treated and released at United Hospital in Sedro-Woolley. Pickup passenger George Russell, 65, of Sedro Woolley, was in stable condition yesterday at United.

Seattle

Portland man tops at Scrabble contest

A Portland man won the three-day Scrabble tournament at the Seattle Red Lion Hotel over the weekend.

Dave Wiegand was awarded $550 yesterday after winning 17 of 20 Scrabble games. Wiegand was one of 109 people who participated in the 17th annual tournament, said Rebecca Slivka, director of the Seattle Scrabble Club.

The tournament was one of eight competitions sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association around the country over the holiday weekend.

Granite Falls

Hiker breaks neck, is airlifted from trail

Snohomish County Search & Rescue volunteers helped airlift a 50-year-old Lake Stevens man Sunday afternoon after he fell over a small cliff along Old Robe Trail, off the Mountain Loop Highway.

The man, whose name was not released, suffered a broken neck when he fell over the 10- to 12-foot cliff about one mile from the trailhead. The accident was reported at 3:16 p.m.

Rescuers placed the victim on a litter attached to a 150-foot helicopter line. The helicopter then lifted him to the parking lot of Snohomish County Fire District 23, at Robe Valley, where he was placed in the chopper and flown to the Colby Campus of Providence Medical Center in Everett.

Carnation

Search suspended for drowning victim

The search has been halted for 22-year-old Samuel Lozano Barrazo of Redmond, who vanished early Saturday evening while swimming with friends in the Snoqualmie River.

Gregory Burden of King County Search and Rescue said the swift current apparently carried Barrazo several miles downstream.

He was swimming with friends off a sandbar in the Snoqualmie River north of Carnation when he disappeared.

Searchers used divers, a helicopter and rafts before calling off the search late Sunday.

Times staff and news services