In brief: Fighting prompts another lockdown

WALLA WALLA – Two units at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla were locked down because of a fight Monday.

The disturbance escalated to include more than 20 inmates. The prison said in a statement that three officers reported injuries and were being evaluated. No inmates suffered serious injuries.

The cause of the fight is being investigated.

Two other units remain under lockdown following a fight last week that involved nearly 50 inmates. One of those units is expected to return to normal operations today.

Son blames his father for deadly robbery

SALEM – The man accused with his father of setting a bomb that killed two police officers in a bank robbery attempt in Oregon cast blame toward his father Monday, describing his dad’s long-standing fantasies of killing police and robbing banks, and his strange behavior the day after the blast.

Taking the witness stand at the trial in Marion County Circuit Court, Joshua Turnidge denied having anything to do with the bomb that went off Dec. 12, 2008, while a state police bomb technician was trying to dismantle it inside a bank.

Turnidge instead described growing up hearing his father regularly expound on far-right political themes, a strict interpretation of the Constitution, and intricate plans to kill police and rob banks.

Turnidge is on trial with his father, Bruce, on aggravated murder and other charges.

SEATTLE – Three SWAT officers fatally shot an armed man in a car, Seattle police said Monday.

Firefighters responding to a call about a man slumped over the steering wheel of a parked car backed off when the man pulled out a handgun Monday afternoon, said police Deputy Chief Nick Metz.

Metz said the man refused commands to drop the gun. At one point the man raised the gun “in a direction the officers took as threatening,” and all three officers fired multiple shots, he said. The unidentified man died at the scene.