Policeman shoots dog, cites owner

A Spokane County sheriff’s sergeant shot and killed a pit bull terrier when it lunged at him Friday morning, and the dog’s owner was cited for having a dog at large.

Sgt. Pete Bunch shot the dog about 10:45 a.m. in the 5900 block of North Monroe Street. Bunch had stopped to investigate when he saw the dog standing next to a parked car with a woman inside and a door ajar, according to sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Reagan said Bunch retreated when the dog lunged at him and fired three shots when it lunged a second time while he was backed against a fence. Bunch fired a fourth shot to dispatch the wounded animal, Reagan said.

He said the woman, a passing motorist, had been trying to lure the pit bull out of the roadway with dog treats, but got back into her car when it began growling at her.

Reagan identified the dog’s owner as Andrew J. Oliver, 5927 N. Monroe St.

– John Craig

Court upholds ruling in dog theft case

A Kennewick resident was properly convicted of stealing a Colville-area woman’s Scottish terrier when she rescued it from an icy highway, the Spokane branch of the Washington Court of Appeals has ruled.

The court rejected Janet Katherine Boyles’ appeal of her second-degree theft conviction on grounds that a judge should have allowed her to argue to jurors that what she did was necessary to spare the dog from harm.

Boyles could have taken the dog to a shelter instead of taking it home, a three-judge panel ruled this week.

Testimony indicated Boyles asked a Colville radio station to help her locate the dog’s owner, but she reneged on her promise to return the dog when the owner contacted her a few days later in December 2004.

Boyles told a sheriff’s deputy that she thought the owner was running a “puppy mill.” Besides, she reportedly told the deputy, “possession is nine-tenths of the law” and “finders keepers, losers weepers.” And he couldn’t prove she had the dog, anyway.

The deputy finally persuaded Boyles to return the dog, but she called the deputy an hour before the appointed hand-over to say the dog ran away at an unknown park somewhere in Spokane Valley.

The Court of Appeals didn’t count the tenths, but said the evidence added up to a valid conviction.

Mud-filled fake bomb found at university

An Eastern Washington University building was evacuated Friday morning when a janitor found an apparent pipe bomb that turned to be filled with mud instead of explosives.

Spokane County sheriff’s bomb technicians were called to the Cheney campus about 8:35 a.m. when a janitor found the suspicious device, wrapped in bubble wrap, outside the Computer and Engineering building.

Deputies used a robot to remove the six-inch-long pipe, which was plugged at both ends and had some red fabric extending from one end.

Investigators hadn’t determined the origin of the faux bomb, Sgt. Dave Reagan said.

– John Craig