Local News

The Associated Press

BUCKLEY, Pierce County — The Pierce County sheriff’s office says a homeowner who shot and killed an intruder near Buckley will not be arrested.

Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer says the 21-year-old intruder was acting erratically late Monday when he drove through a driveway gate, crashed into several parked cars and then forced his way into the home near 258th Avenue East and 164th Street East.

A woman who lives in the home locked herself in a bathroom and called 911. Her husband grabbed a gun and went to investigate.

Troyer says the homeowner fired at least two shots, killing the intruder inside the home.

The News Tribune reports the 67-year-old man was taken to a hospital with unknown injuries.

Two men pleaded not guilty this morning to charges stemming from a vicious home invasion in Kirkland last month in which they are accused of breaking into a home, dragging a man from his bed and attacking him with knife.

Vincent Sisounong, 21, and Blessing Gainey, 19, pleaded not guilty in King County Superior Court to charges of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree burglary, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Both men remain in jail, with Sisounong’s bail set at $1 million, and $500,000 for Gainey.

Their next scheduled court hearing is Dec. 5.

Sometime before 6 a.m. on Oct. 12, the two men forced their way into a house in Kirkland’s Kingsgate neighborhood and confronted the 18-year-old victim as he slept in a third-floor bedroom of his parents’ home, charging documents say. The two men restrained the teen in bed and held a knife to his throat, the papers say.

The two forced the young man downstairs, threatening to harm others in the house if he resisted or made any sound, according to the papers. Once in the basement, the victim was wrestled to the floor; one of his attackers restrained his arms and instructed his accomplice to cut the man’s leg off, the papers say.

That attacker  — allegedly Gainey — began hacking at the man’s left ankle and leg, “causing large deep cuts down to the bone,” the papers say.

The  victim recalled the other man, allegedly Sisounong, “saying that they needed to kill (the 18-year-old) now that he had seen their faces,” according to the papers.

The victim was able to break free and was kicked in the head, the papers say. During the struggle, the man’s car alarm began to go off, allegedly causing Gainey to flee, the papers say.

Sisounong allegedly stayed behind, ordering the victim to his knees and delivering deep cuts to the man’s right shoulder and head with a large knife, according to charging documents.

The victim was able to run to a bathroom and lock himself inside, but Sisounong allegedly broke the door open and continued to assault the 18-year-old with the knife, the papers say.

The victim punched his attacker in the face, causing the man to flee, according to the papers.

The vicrim ran to a nearby house, where he woke up the homeowners and asked them to call for help, according to the charging documents.

The victim was hospitalized for five days at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, where he underwent surgery for his injuries, the papers say.

Sketch of Kirkland home invasion suspect. (Kirkland police)

Kirkland police have released this sketch of one of two men who forced their way into a home early Saturday and assaulted a man.

The two men forced their way into a home in the 13700 block of Northeast 133^rd Street around 6 a.m. and took a male occupant from his bed to the basement as his family slept.  The victim was assaulted and sustained injuries from an edged weapon, police said.

The intruders are unknown to the homeowners and a motive for the attack is being investigated, according to police.

The first intruder, pictured in the drawing, is a 20- to 30-year-old Asian, 150 to 160 pounds, with hazel eyes with an average build, dark goatee and a white spike piercing through his lower lip.

The second intruder has dark skin, 20 to 30 years old, about 190 pounds with a muscular build, short black hair and a deep voice.

Anyone with information on the men is asked to call the Kirkland Police Department Tip Line at 425-587-3515.

The Associated Press

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Police in Vancouver, Wash., say a 48-year-old woman smacked an intruder in the head with a dumbbell after he entered her home through the garage and made sexual comments.

The Columbian reports that police spokeswoman Kim Kapp says the woman initially thought someone she knew was coming home, then saw a male stranger in his 20s walk into her living room Tuesday afternoon.

Kapp says the intruder reportedly grabbed the woman’s legs and made sexual comments. That prompted her to pick up a nearby hand weight and hit him in the head. He ran back out the way he came in.

A K-9 unit searched but did not find the man.

The unidentified woman was not hurt and nothing was taken.

A woman was attacked by a stranger in her Central District apartment Monday evening, Seattle police say.

The victim was cooking inside her home in the 700 block of 26th Avenue around 8:15 p.m. when someone knocked on her door. When the victim’s young son unlocked the deadbolt, a man began trying to force his way inside the home, police said.

The intruder broke a second lock on the door, burst inside the home and grabbed the woman.

The woman wrestled herself away from the man, grabbed her son, and ran to a neighbor’s house, where she called 911, according to police.

During the incident, another woman walked by the victim’s home, heard the commotion, walked up to the door and asked what was going on. The intruder told her it “was an accident” and fled, police said.

The victim suffered a minor injury to her wrist and was treated at Harborview Medical Center.

The King County Sheriff’s Office this morning released more details from Tuesday night’s home invasion robbery in Maple Valley.

According to the sheriff’s office, a 38-year-old man was at his house in the 23600 block of Witte Road with a friend when a “team” of intruders burst into the home, assaulted the homeowner and tied him up.

The intruders then went to an open safe, clearing it of shotguns and rifles, drugs and money, police said.

As the group left, the victim broke free, armed himself and went outside, firing a handgun at the suspects as they drove off, the sheriff’s office said. Witnesses later told police they saw guns being thrown out of the moving vehicles.

One of the suspected robbers, a man believed to be in his 30s, was dropped off at a nearby 7-Eleven store with a gunshot wound to his face, police said.

A second suspect drove herself to the Valley Medical Center with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to her buttocks, according to sheriff’s spokesman Det. Jason Stanley.

Anyone with  information on the case is asked to call the sheriff’s tip line at 206-263-2130.

A convicted rapist who broke into a University District house last year and threatened six young women with a knife, undressing one of the victims, was sentenced this afternoon to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A King County jury found Robert Douglas Hitt, 34, guilty last month of nine felony charges, including six counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of first-degree burglary. Because two of the charges in the University District home invasion carried sexual-motivation allegations, Hitt faced a life sentence under Washington’s “two strikes” law for repeat sex offenders.

During this afternoon’s sentencing hearing it was revealed that Hitt had tried to commit suicide earlier today by cutting his arms with a razor in the King County Jail. He was kept in restraints during the hearing.

Hitt, a Level II sex offender, had been released from prison two months before the March 11, 2012, home invasion after serving 10 years for first-degree rape.

Police said Hitt broke into the home in the 5000 block of 20th Avenue Northeast early in the morning and ordered six young women, all University of Washington students, into a bedroom at knifepoint. Hitt bound the hands of one woman and then took her clothes off, police said.

Two other roommates hid in their bedrooms and called 911, summoning police who arrested Hitt.

Officers found a knife in Hitt’s pocket, along with cellphones belonging to two of his victims, police said. He claimed he planned to rob the women for beer money, police said.

Hitt was under lifelong supervision by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) at the time of the attack.

According to court records, Hitt was charged with first-degree rape in October 2001 and pleaded guilty in May 2002.

He completed a sex-offender treatment program and was released from prison Jan. 10, 2012, after the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board found he was at low risk to reoffend, according to the DOC. The board could have extended his prison sentence in two-year increments, up to a maximum of life, court records show.

A man who robbed several people at gunpoint during a West Seattle estate sale Thursday afternoon is at large, according to the Seattle Police Department.

The masked suspect forced his way into a home at Southwest Hinds Street and Belvidere Avenue Southwest around 3:45 p.m. He then stole cash and jewelry from people inside the home and fled.

No one was injured during the robbery and officers found no evidence shots were fired. Officers thought they may have found the suspect during a stop less than a mile away, but they later released the man.

Masked burglars woke a Redmond area couple up this morning with pepper spray and a handgun, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The intruders broke into the home in the 9000 block of 209 Avenue Northeast just after 12:30 a.m. and confronted a man and a woman, both in their 50s, while they were in bed. One suspect pepper sprayed the man and rifled through the bedroom as the other suspect pointed a handgun at the couple.

Immediately after the suspects took some of the couple’s property and fled out the back door, a vehicle with a loud muffler was heard leaving the area.

The suspects are described as a white man about 6 feet tall, 220 pounds, and a shorter black man.

The Associated Press