Saturday funeral scheduled for paratrooper killed in Iraq

The funeral is scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Colville for a 21-year-old paratrooper killed earlier this month by an explosion in Iraq.

The service for Spec. Ryan Bell is set for 1 p.m. at the United Methodist Church, 930 S. Elm St.

Bell, a rifleman and medic, is one of six members of the 82nd Airborne killed on March 5 near Samarra when an improvised explosive device was detonated near their vehicles.

Born in Portland, Bell attended grade school in Valley and Chewelah, Wash., and graduated from the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Fla.

He enlisted in the Army in 2004 and served with his unit in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina before being sent to Iraq.

He trained as a medic and had hoped to attend college through ROTC and eventually go to medical school.

He is survived by his wife, Teri, at Fort Bragg, N.C.; father and stepmother, Mike and Ginger Rhoades Bell, of Colville, and mother, Sheryl Vickery, of Spokane.

Members of the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of patriotic motorcyclists, will set up a “flag line” to honor Bell near the church.

“We will be there,” Joel Oestriech, the state captain for the group, said Monday.

Spokane

17-year-old homeless girl rescued from river

A 17-year-old girl was rescued Monday morning after she slipped into the Spokane River near the Post Street Bridge.

The homeless girl was camping with a group of teens and young adults when she fell just before 6 a.m., said Spokane Police Cpl. Tom Lee.

She held onto a rock while several people ran up the hillside to flag down a Spokane Street Department crew.

Other friends pulled her from the river before police arrived, Lee said.

The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Lee said the group camped there to stay out of the elements.

“It’s a place they can hide and not risk being victims of street crime,” he said.

At least one other person fell into the Spokane River last week in the same place. Lee said police will ask the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department to prevent further camping at the spot.

The group camped there Sunday night has moved on, Lee said.

Third suspect charged in man’s slaying

A third man faces first-degree murder and kidnapping charges in the June 2006 killing of Sebastian L. Equibel.

Carlton J. Hritsco, 26, was arrested at 10:30 a.m. Monday by Spokane County sheriff’s deputies, said Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan.

Hritsco joins Levoy Goff Burnham, 37, and Theodore M. Kosewicz, 38, as co-defendants in the killing.

The three men are accused of beating Esquibel in a travel trailer on Spokane’s North Side, then driving the bloodied man to a field in southern Spokane County and shooting him in the head, Reagan said.

Esquibel was found in a woodpile near Fairfield with his feet bound by jumper cables, Reagan said.

He was allegedly killed over a $700 to $800 drug debt owed to Hritsco.

From staff and wire reports