July 14, 2009 in City

Region in brief: Family’s U-Haul stolen from motel

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A family moving from Canada to Florida lost most of their possessions Sunday when their moving truck was stolen from a Spokane Valley motel.

The U-Haul truck was stolen from the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express, 9220 E. Mission Ave., between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the Spokane Valley Police Department.

The 34-year-old father gave police a copy of an inventory of the possessions – required to enter the United States – but a list of serial numbers on the expensive items was in the truck when it was stolen, police said.

The truck is a 2007 Ford Econoline E-450 with Arizona license plates AD21523. The truck is white and orange with graphics of a sandhill crane on the sides.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Meghann M. Cuniff

Biting bear ID’d through DNA test

A female grizzly that bit an Eastern Idaho hunter last month has been identified through DNA testing of saliva on the hunter’s wound.

Preliminary testing indicated that the grizzly is a radio-collared bear with three cubs. All four bears were spotted during a scheduled Idaho Fish and Game monitoring flight in early July. The grizzly – which was shot at after she bit the hunter in the right arm – appeared to be fine, said a Daryl Meints, a state regional wildlife manager.

The hunter, 38-year-old Keith Klingler, of Idaho Falls, was treated for cuts.

Klingler was black-bear hunting with two other men June 28 when their hounds surrounded the female grizzly and her cubs. The grizzly knocked Klingler down, bit him and tossed him around. His brother fired a shot from a .44-caliber Magnum, aiming high to avoid his brother.

He may have missed the grizzly or only inflicted a flesh wound, Meints said.

Officials recommend that anyone heading into the backcountry carry bear repellent.

Becky Kramer

HIV-positive man faces new charge

A man accused of having unprotected sex without telling his partner he had HIV faces an additional first-degree assault charge after the family of a former lover recognized him in news reports of his arrest, according to court papers filed in Spokane County Superior Court.

Zuriel E. Roush, 22, was arrested in May after a man he had sex with learned Roush had the virus that causes AIDS but told the man he didn’t at the time of the encounter, police said.

A former boyfriend who lived with Roush from spring 2008 until late November learned Roush was HIV-positive through an anonymous phone call in late November.

The man’s mother recognized Roush from news reports as her son’s former roommate who ate Thanksgiving dinner at her home, according to court papers.

Roush, who remains in Spokane County Jail on $150,000 bail, is due in court Wednesday on the additional charge. He told police he had sex with 120 people since he was diagnosed with HIV and said two-thirds of the encounters were unprotected, according to court documents.

Meghann M. Cuniff

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