In brief: Police searching for gunman

Police are looking for a suspect in a Spokane incident Friday in which witnesses reported a gunshot was fired into a home.

Based upon the suspect’s vehicle description, police are seeking the registered owner, Joshua A. Stark, 32, whose last known address is Liberty Lake, said police Cpl. Jon Strickland.

The incident began near Regal and Weile in northeast Spokane when, a woman said, she saw a vehicle driving recklessly, nearly striking her.

She later saw the driver park a 1979 Cadillac near her home and get something out of its trunk before a shot was fired into another residence, the police spokesman said.

No one was injured in the shooting, witnessed by several people, Strickland said.

Hayden Lake

Hayden Lake seems clear of sewage

Any contamination from last week’s sewage spill in Hayden Lake appears to have dissipated.

The Hayden Lake Recreational Water and Sewer District said Saturday that samples taken from the spill site at Coopers Bay showed that water quality has returned to acceptable levels. The tests were on samples taken Friday.

“Hayden Lake recreation opportunities, such as swimming, fishing and boating can continue, without restriction, in the Coopers Bay area of Hayden Lake,” John Tindall, senior engineer for the Idaho Department of Water Quality, said in a prepared statement.

Although as much as 11,000 gallons of raw sewage may have spilled into the lake, officials believe the actual amount was much less. Cause of the spill is believed to be a plugged pipe or pump, possibly from diapers or baby wipes.

STEHEKIN, Wash.

Float plane crashes into lake, killing two

Two people were killed Saturday when a float plane carrying five people crashed into Lake Chelan near the remote community of Stehekin.

The single-engine DeHavilland Beaver was a charter flight from Chelan Airways that had taken off from the town of Chelan about 4:30 p.m. It crashed about 15 minutes later, flipping onto its top as it tried to land at Stehekin, said Jeff Middleton, chief criminal deputy for the Chelan County sheriff’s department.

Those killed were a woman from Stehekin and a man, Middleton said. The male pilot and a female were taken to a hospital in Chelan, and the fifth person, a 16-year-old girl, was unhurt, he said.

The conditions of the injured man and woman, who suffered at least hypothermia, were not immediately available. The dead man and the injured woman were believed to be husband and wife, Middleton said.

The plane was being recovered by officials on the scene, and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the cause of the crash, Middleton said.

ROME

UW student, slaying suspect stays in jail

A University of Washington student under investigation in the slaying of her British roommate in Italy must remain behind bars, an Italian judge ruled Saturday.

The judge rejected a lawyer’s request to transfer Amanda Marie Knox, 20, of Seattle, to house arrest.

Knox is being held in Perugia in central Italy in the Nov. 1 stabbing death of 21-year-old Meredith Kercher. Knox has been jailed since Nov. 6, and judges have ruled that she can be held for up to a year while the case is investigated.

According to the ANSA news agency, the lawyers wanted Knox moved to a shelter operated by Catholic charity Caritas.

Kercher was found dead from a stab wound to the neck in the apartment she shared with Knox in Perugia, a university town about 110 miles north of Rome. Prosecutors have said she was killed resisting a sexual assault.

Knox and two men have been jailed for months in the case, although no formal charges have been filed.

From staff and wire reports