In brief: ‘Excited delirium’ training begins
Friday marked the start of training in recognizing and dealing with “excited delirium” directed specifically at Spokane County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies, police dispatchers and jail staff.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said the Sheriff’s Office command staff, defensive tactics instructors and several lieutenants completed the training this spring with the Spokane Police Department.
Dr. Matt Layton, medical director of Spokane Mental Health, leads the training to teach first-responders how to recognize excited delirium. Police describe the condition as a mix of extreme mental and physical excitement, often fueled by drugs or alcohol, that can trigger a medical emergency.
The training will continue for three months in order to educate 495 Sheriff’s Office employees and will be extended if necessary to make sure everyone receives the instruction.
“The only people who won’t be going through the training are the secretarial staff,” Knezovich said.
The excited delirium training is an ongoing process, Knezovich said. It will be changing as more is learned from those on the front lines of law enforcement.
Post Falls
Voyeurism charges added
Video voyeurism charges were filed Friday against a former Post Falls man who already faces two charges of lewd conduct with minors.
Post Falls police were investigating allegations against 36-year-old Vincent P. Aschinger last fall when he allegedly fled to Oregon, where he was arrested on a warrant from Latah County.
This week Aschinger was brought to Kootenai County to face lewd conduct charges for allegedly abusing two pre-teen girls in Post Falls in 2006.
Post Falls police Det. Dave Beck said a third girl was the alleged victim in a video voyeurism case filed against Aschinger on Friday. Beck said Aschinger allegedly set up a camera in his home and enticed the girl to come inside and change her clothes while he taped her.
Coeur d’Alene
Kroc center fund surpasses goal
A $50,000 pledge from Global Credit Union put the Coeur d’Alene Kroc Community Center well over its fundraising goal.
The donation Friday brings The Salvation Army’s fundraising tally to about $6.36 million. The goal was $6 million to begin construction this summer.
Donors gave nearly $2 million over the past six weeks, including a $1 million donation from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.
The locally raised money is in addition to a $64 million donation from the Kroc Foundation – $32 million for construction costs and $32 million for an endowment to fund about 40 percent of the center’s operating expenses.
The center will be built on the corner of Ramsey and Golf Course roads in Coeur d’Alene. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for June 27 at 4 p.m., and the center is expected to open in December 2008.
Stevens county
Mobile trailer burns at farm
A 1950s mobile trailer burned almost completely at a farm about one mile south of Clayton on Friday night.
The property owners reported the fire at 8:36 p.m., a Stevens County dispatcher said.
Eight units from Stevens County Fire District No. 1 responded, Capt. Gregg Meyer said. Nobody was hurt, and the blaze was out by 9:30 p.m.
“We’ll call it a complete loss,” Meyer said. “It didn’t burn to the ground, but I don’t think anything is salvageable.”
He said the cause looks electrical, but it was still under investigation at 9:45 p.m.
The trailer was used primarily for storage at the homestead, which also consists of a wooden home and a garage, Meyer said. The area is surrounded by alfalfa fields.
MUKILTEO, Wash.
Ferry hits dock, disrupting service
A Washington state ferry rammed the outer dock at the Mukilteo terminal north of Seattle early Friday. The impact knocked down some passengers, damaged the vessel and some pilings and disrupted service for much of the day.
The ferry Cathlamet came in at a higher than normal speed about 6 a.m. and rammed pilings that guide ferries into the terminal, ferry system spokeswoman Susan Harris said.
The jolt knocked down some passengers, including at least one who fell down stairs, but no serious injuries were reported.
The 328-foot Cathlamet was moved to an Everett shipyard to repair a puncture above the waterline.
A tugboat was brought in to remove broken pilings from the Mukilteo terminal.
By late Friday afternoon, normal two-boat service had resumed on the Mukilteo-Clinton run after another ferry was brought in to replace the Cathlamet, Harris said.
Investigators will try to determine whether the crash was caused by a mechanical problem or human error, Harris said.
Kent, Wash.
Shooting called murder-suicide
A shooting Friday at a postal business left a man and woman dead in what a King County sheriff’s spokesman described as a murder-suicide.
The woman, an employee at the Mail and More store, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she died. A hospital nursing supervisor confirmed the death Friday night but could not discuss any details.
A man armed with a handgun shot the woman and then killed himself, sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said. The handgun was recovered at the scene.
The relationship between the two was not immediately known, Urquhart said. Neither was immediately identified.