In brief

Help needed to find men in stabbing

Coeur d’Alene police are asking for help identifying three men who are persons of interest in a Thursday morning stabbing.

Video footage of three customers from the Torch Lounge, a downtown Coeur d’Alene bikini bar, was made available late Friday.

The videos are posted on The Spokesman-Review’s Web site, www.spokesmanreview.com.

Nestor Cubillas-Ronquillo was stabbed several times in an alley near the Torch Lounge after leaving the bar. Coeur d’Alene police say he was attacked around 1 a.m. by three white men.

Cubillas-Ronquillo was reported in good condition at Kootenai Medical Center on Friday.

Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call Coeur d’Alene police at (208) 769-2320 or the Tip Line at (208) 769-2296.

Spokane Valley

Cat, four kittens killed by pit bulls

A cat and her four kittens were killed early Friday morning by three roaming pit bulls, authorities said.

Spokane County animal control officers searched for the three dogs – one black, one brown and one white with brown patches – Friday without success, said Patricia Simonet, with Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Services.

SCRAPS officers were called to the 4600 block of East Second Avenue in Spokane Valley early Friday when a resident saw the dogs attacking the cat and kittens, Simonet said, but the felines were torn up and dead when the officers arrived.

If the dogs are caught, they will be deemed dangerous under a Spokane County ordinance, Simonet said. The ordinance would require the pet owners to meet certain requirements in order to keep the dogs, including muzzling them in public.

“It’s unfortunate, because this didn’t have to happen,” Simonet said.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call (509) 477-2533.

Region

Activists cycle through area

Ten bicyclists riding across the country to promote peace and social justice passed through Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene on Friday and are expected today to visit the Bunker Hill Superfund site and learn about Kellogg.

This is the 14th year for Bike Aid, a Seattle-to-Washington, D.C., ride organized by Global Exchange, a human rights group in San Francisco.

The riders often are hosted along the way by local groups that have similar programs of social and environmental outreach, including the Silver Valley Community Resource Center.

Kellogg residents will feed the riders dinner and show a documentary of the Superfund site, “Heavy Metal.” After a stop Sunday in Mullan, the groups will head into Montana. The riders are due in the nation’s capital in mid-August.

Rathdrum

Volunteers to aid victims’ family

KW Cares, a group of agents with Keller Williams Real Estate in Coeur d’Alene, planned to volunteer time today to work on the home of a Rathdrum family that lost a father and daughter in a car crash earlier this year.

The agents will do concrete work, replace windows, plant shrubs and trees and stain the deck among other chores at the home of Staci Wright and her children.

Fourteen other businesses are contributing to the project as well.

Jesse Wright, 35, and his daughter, 16-year-old Keriann Wright, died of injuries sustained in a head-on collision April 21 on Highway 53. Two of the Wrights’ other children, Nathan Wright, 13, and Nicholas Wright, 12, were injured in the crash.

Spokane

Sex offender living downtown

A Level 3 sex offender, the kind considered most likely to commit new sex crimes, has moved to downtown Spokane, police warned Friday.

David R. Rickard, 45, was convicted of first-degree burglary with sexual motivation in 1995 in Stevens County. His victim was a woman.

Rickard is under supervision by the state Department of Corrections. He is 5-foot-8, weighs 166 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.

Portland

Mayor demotes police chief

Mayor Tom Potter demoted Police Chief Derrick Foxworth on Friday after a probe into charges that the chief had a sexual affair with a subordinate, implied she could lose her job if she didn’t keep it quiet, and used city resources to further the relationship.

Potter said that most of the allegations against Foxworth were not substantiated by an investigation, but Foxworth’s judgment in the case did not meet the mayor’s standards.

Foxworth has been on paid administrative leave since April 11. He had headed the Portland Police Bureau since 2003.

Potter said he was demoting Foxworth to captain.

Compiled from staff reports