Pickup Driver Takes Shot At Fleeing Car
A teenage driver and two friends were threatened by a man with a gun early Monday, but sped away before a shot was fired.
The 18-year-old driver told deputies a Ford Ranger pickup pulled out of a parking lot near 16th and University and began following him shortly before 1:30 a.m.
The driver said he wasn’t worried because he thought the driver of the pickup was someone he knew.
The teenager pulled over at 10th and Woodruff. There, the pickup’s driver got out and approached the teenager’s vehicle. He whipped out a gun after smacking the teenager’s vehicle with his hand.
The driver punched the gas and heard a shot fired. Other witnesses also reported seeing the man fire at the vehicle, Sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick said.
The gunman was described as a white male, 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds. His Ranger was an extended cab model, cream-colored, with a red stripe in the middle. A passenger was also in the truck.
Accused shoplifter leaves name on store’s contest entry form
After filling out an entry form to win a bicycle at a convenience store on Saturday, a man stuffed cigarettes down his sweatpants and assaulted a store clerk.
The clerk at the Holiday gas station at 411 N. Pines said she saw a man register for the bicycle giveaway, then begin stealing cigarettes just before 8:30 p.m.
The clerk tried to prevent the man from leaving by blocking the door. Instead the man, back turned to the clerk, walked backwards and ran her and some customers over. The clerk grabbed his arm, only to be pushed outside and thrown to the ground.
“He was determined I wasn’t going to stop him,” the clerk said.
The man and a woman fled on foot. Another woman who was with them sped off in a white 1965 Ford Thunderbird.
Later, a sheriff’s deputy and a Washington State Patrol trooper stopped Thunderbird at Broadway and Bowdish.
They arrested the driver, Melody Murfin, 41. Todd E. Grendahl, 32, was found by a state trooper near Sprague and Skipworth and was arrested. Both were arrested for second-degree.
A K-9 unit was brought out, but a third suspect was not found.
The store clerk said Grendahl wrote his name and address on an entry form for the bicycle contest.
Big brawl started by angry woman
A casual conversation turned into a 10-person brawl late Saturday, when a woman dumped her drink on a man then hurled her glass, missing the man but clocking another woman in the head.
The melee at Percy’s Eating & Drinking Establishment at University City started when the man left his table of three friends and approached a woman he thought he knew.
Once the woman dumped her drink on the man and hurled the empty glass, several men started fighting. The woman who was hit with the glass was attacked by the woman who threw it.
Employees and patrons broke up the brawl. Everyone was kicked out, Percy’s management said.
When deputies showed up, the glass-thrower had cleared out. She was described as white, 25 or older, 5-foot-5 and 120 pounds.
The injured woman was taken to a local hospital where she was treated for head and arm injuries.
, DataTimes