In brief: Woman reports harassment near WSU
Pullman police are looking for four men who reportedly have sexually harassed a woman several times near Greek row since early September.
During the most recent incident, just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, three of the four men assaulted the woman and dragged her behind a fence at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity of Washington State University, police say. Pullman Police Chief Ted Weatherly did not indicate she was raped.
The first incident was about Sept. 4, when the four men reportedly made catcalls at the woman as she walked alone near the intersection of Monroe and Colorado streets about 9 a.m., police say. The next day, in the same area, the suspects surrounded her and made sexually suggestive remarks, police say.
The woman told police the incidents were repeated for the next few days.
“We’re hoping we can find someone that has seen one of these incidents and corroborate her story,” Weatherly said.
All four men were described as white in a police statement. One is about 6-foot-4, weighs 180 pounds, has shaggy blond hair and brown eyes. Another was about the same height, weighs about 200 pounds, has blue eyes and short, brown, spiked hair. A third stands a couple inches shorter, weighs about 160 pounds, has brown eyes, freckles and light-brown hair with a hint of red. The fourth is stocky, weighs 220 to 230 pounds and has blond hair and blue eyes.
Pullman police are asking anyone with information to call (509) 334-0802.
airway heights
Escaped murderer from Arizona caught
A convicted murderer who escaped from a privately run prison in Arizona was captured Tuesday night in Airway Heights.
Roy Townsend, 37, was arrested by the Eastern Washington Joint Fugitive Task Force outside the Bell Motel.
Authorities say Townsend and Kollin Folsom, 24, overpowered a guard Sept. 17 while working on a cleaning crew at the Florence Correctional Center. Then they used ladders to scale razor- wire-topped fencing.
“All I wanted to do was get back to see my family,” Townsend said in a jail interview Wednesday.
He hitchhiked from Arizona to Washington, stopping through Spokane to see two of his sisters, Evelyn Watson and Miriam Sammons, on his way home to the Bremerton area. Police pulled over the women Tuesday and found a motel key that led them to Townsend.
He said Wednesday that he expected to eventually get caught.
“It doesn’t matter,” Townsend said. “I’ve got 66 years. You can do the math. I’m going to die in prison.”
Townsend was convicted of arson, theft and murder in the 1996 shooting of 18-year-old Gerald Harkins, of Shelton, Wash.