In brief: Police investigate possible homicide
Spokane police are investigating a possible homicide after a group of teens walking home from McDonald’s found a body in a sport utility vehicle Monday about a block from their Jefferson Street apartment.
The body was in the back seat of a white Nissan Pathfinder, with a Kootenai County license plate, parked at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jefferson Street. Major Crimes Unit detectives were investigating the scene Monday night and had released no details.
Kayla Snow, 18, said she and her friends saw the body as they were walking home from lunch about 5 p.m. It appeared to be male with burn marks on his hands, Snow said.
“There were flies everywhere on the Pathfinder,” she said.
Neighbors at the scene Monday night said the vehicle had been there two or three days.
Meghann M. Cuniff
MULLAN, Idaho
Wolf shooting justified, officer says
A Shoshone County man who shot and killed a wolf attacking his dog didn’t violate state law, an Idaho Fish and Game officer concluded.
Barry Sadler of Mullan, Idaho, shot the 80-pound male wolf May 13. An investigating officer saw multiple bite wounds on the dog, which survived.
People can kill wolves without permits if the wolves are harassing or attacking livestock or pets, said Ed Mitchell, Fish and Game spokesman. They must report the incident within 72 hours, which Sadler did.
Sadler, who lives in a wooded area, spotted five wolves the morning of May 13, according to the Fish and Game report. Two were attacking one of his Great Pyrenees; his other Pyrenees was chasing a third wolf; and Sadler’s Rottweiler was guarding sheep from the two remaining wolves, the report said.
Sadler fired two shots. He later found the dead wolf about 30 yards away.
Gray wolves in the Northern Rockies were taken off the Endangered Species List in late March. They’re now classified as big game animals in Idaho.
When big game animals are killed without a permit, each death is investigated, Mitchell said.
Becky Kramer
Spokane Valley
School board member hits bike in crosswalk
A first-grader at Otis Orchards Elementary School received minor cuts and scrapes Monday when a car driven by a member of the East Valley School District’s board clipped her bike as she rode through a crosswalk.
The car hit the bike’s back tire and sent the girl tumbling to the ground, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said.
The driver, Michael E. Harris, 43, was cited for failure to yield right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Harris was not on official business but was dropping off one of his children at school, district spokeswoman Judi Christianson said.
“He was just a parent this morning,” Christianson said. “It was an unfortunate accident.”
The 7-year-old’s mother was there, and the girl was able to go to class after having scrapes treated by Valley Fire paramedics stationed a block away.
Reagan urged drivers to double-check for pedestrians before pulling into traffic. “It’s look right, look left, look right and then proceed,” he said.
Nina Culver