Teen punched, shot over video game

A 16-year-old boy who was shot in the leg Tuesday afternoon told investigators his attackers were there to steal his hand-held video game, police said.

The boywas treated for the gunshot wound and a punch to the face and released, Spokane Police Officer Tim Moses said.

The victim told police that three other juveniles came to the Maplehurst apartment building, on Maple Street and Fourth Avenue, and tried to rob him at gunpoint when a fight broke out over the game.

The three juveniles left the scene, possibly in a green late-1980s Ford Escort or Tempo, before police got the call about 3:55 p.m., Moses said.

Police had not found the juveniles Tuesday.

colville

Search continues for missing hunter

The search continued Tuesday for a 20-year-old Colville hunter who left on a hunt Saturday and hasn’t been seen since.

Samuel Green was hunting from a campground near Sheep Creek Road, about eight miles west of Highway 25, near Northport, said Stevens County Undersheriff LaVonne Webb.

The search included about 25 people from the Sheriff’s Office, a search-and-rescue Explorers post and the U.S. Border Patrol. The Border Patrol provided a helicopter, while other searchers used four-wheelers Monday. They worked on horseback Tuesday.

Green was wearing a Carhartt jacket and camouflage pants, Webb said. Authorities believe he has survival gear, including a sleeping bag and dehydrated food. He’s 5-foot-8, weighs 175 pounds and has brown hair, a goatee and blue eyes.

“If another hunter happened to cross paths with him, we would appreciate a phone call about that,” Webb said.

The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office can be reached at (509) 684-5296.

Spokane Valley

Ex-chief expected to admit arson

A former Los Angeles County Fire Department battalion chief is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to burning down a Spokane Valley company’s new office building in 2003.

Louis K. Devarney Jr., 66, will pay “substantial restitution” as part of his plea on the second-degree arson charge stemming from the fire at Spokane Rock Products, 4418 E. Eighth Ave., said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Martin Rollins.

Devarney, 1715 S. Stanley Lane, was involved in a zoning dispute with the firm at the time of the fire. Authorities had no leads in the $400,000 fire until 2006, when another retired Los Angeles battalion chief tipped off authorities.

The informer got his information from his wife, who got her information from Devarney’s wife, according to an affidavit by Clifton Mehaffey, deputy fire marshal for the Spokane Valley Fire Department.

Mehaffey said Laurel C. Devarney confirmed that her husband confessed the arson to her on the night of the fire, when he arrived home in black clothing and a black hood.

Devarney was released on $10,000 bail last October and put on home detention. Before the plea was struck, he was scheduled to stand trial Nov. 19.

palouse

Groups to sue over giant worm

Four environmental groups have notified the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service they intend to sue to force the agency to protect the giant Palouse earthworm, a rarely seen species.

Earlier this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service denied the groups’ petition to add the worm to the federal list of threatened and endangered species.

The formal intent to sue comes from the Center for Biological Diversity, Palouse Prairie Foundation, Palouse Audubon and Friends of the Clearwater, as well as two individuals, Steve Paulson and Lynne Nelson.

– From staff reports