Workers sent home after threat

A Newport, Wash., man was arrested Tuesday afternoon in a threat to shoot state Child Protective Services workers that forced the agency’s Newport office to close.

The state Department of Social and Health Services sent its Newport workers home as a precaution when the threat was reported shortly before 10 a.m.

Pend Oreille County sheriff’s Sgt. Grant Sirevog said a Spokane law firm warned state officials that it had just received an anonymous phone call from a man who said, “I’m going to shoot some CPS workers.”

Sirevog said William John Grey, 34, was arrested about 4 p.m. on suspicion of felony harassment. Grey was being held in the county jail without bail Tuesday night.

The law firm called the state DSHS office in Newport because the only cases that the firm has involving Child Protective Services are in Pend Oreille County, Sirevog said.

Spokane County

Deer Park robbery suspect sought

Secret Witness is offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest of a man wanted in connection with a May 19 robbery in Deer Park.

Christopher Todd Pauls, 24, is 6 feet 2 inches tall and 270 pounds, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. Pauls is suspected of stealing a woman’s purse and merchandise in the parking lot of the Yoke’s grocery store at 810 S. Main in Deer Park, Reagan said. After escaping witnesses who attempted to hold him for sheriff’s deputies, Pauls was found in a nearby Dumpster and arrested.

The suspect was released from jail and has now disappeared, Reagan said.

Anyone with information should call (509) 327-5111.