In brief: Half-staff flags will honor serviceman

Fri., May 27, 2011

From Staff And Wire Reports

Gov. Chris Gregoire ordered flags at all Washington state agency buildings be lowered to half-staff Wednesday in honor of a fallen U.S. Army sergeant from Medical Lake.

In honor of Sgt. 1st Class Clifford E. Beattie, flags should fly at half-staff on Wednesday. They should remain at half-staff until the close of business Wednesday or first thing Thursday morning, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Other government entities, residents and businesses are encouraged to join in the recognition.

Beattie was killed by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad on Sunday.

Man shot with arrow; daughter jailed

TAHUYA, Wash. – A teenage girl was arrested for allegedly shooting her 35-year-old father with an arrow, according to a Mason County sheriff’s detective.

Detective William Adam said the man told officers that his 15-year-old daughter used a hunting bow to shoot him in the torso Wednesday evening after he grounded her and took away her cellphone.

The man was flown from the Tee Lake area near Tahuya to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. After surgery to remove the arrow, which had been lodged 6 to 8 inches into his flesh, the man was alert and talking Thursday evening, Adam said.

Adam said the man crawled out a window and drove himself to a neighbor’s house to call 911 after the girl refused to let him use a phone.

The spokesman said the girl fled into woods behind her home with the bow and arrows, but a SWAT team surrounded her and arrested her for investigation of first-degree assault. She was despondent and had medical issues, so she was taken to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. She was transferred to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma, released Thursday afternoon and booked into Mason County Juvenile Detention Center in Shelton.

The father and daughter lived alone at the house, Adam said. The father has full custody of the girl. They have no relatives in the state, Adam said.

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