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SubscribeMarch 28, 2013 at 5:43 AM
Hoquiam standoff ends in fatal shootout
Update at 1:45 p.m.:
HOQUIAM (AP) — A 20-hour standoff between police in a Washington coastal town and a man who wounded an officer ended Thursday after the suspect died in a gunbattle with a SWAT team as his house went up in flames.
The armed man had a gasmask and a ballistic helmet, indicating he had prepared for a confrontation, Hoquiam Sgt. Brian Dayton said.
The question is why.
“We have no idea what made the guy take it to such an extreme level,” Dayton said. “No reason as to why it escalated.”
The 49-year-old man and his 53-year-old wife, whose names were not released, were wanted on arrest warrants out of Sacramento, Calif., for fraud, Dayton said.
The wife owned the home, and the couple had lived in Hoquiam since 2004. The man wasn’t suspected of any crimes locally, Dayton said.
Officers went to the home Tuesday and arrested the woman on a warrant. She remains in the Grays Harbor County Jail.
The man gave a false identification, but officers figured it out and returned Wednesday morning to arrest him.
“He engaged in a firefight with the officers on the scene, striking one of our officers,” Dayton said.
Sgt. Jeff Salstrom was hit in the hip, but the bullet was slowed by his duty belt, Dayton said. Salstrom was treated at a hospital for a minor wound and released.
The standoff began after Salstrom and another officer returned fire and the suspect retreated back into the two-story house, where he holed up on the top floor.
The man yelled back and forth with officers who remained on the first floor, Dayton said. He said he was wounded.
Communications broke off in the early evening after he damaged a police robot that was sent into the house.
“The situation became unsafe, and they backed out and started using a public address system,” Dayton said.
The man was seen overnight in a gasmask and helmet.
“It appeared to us he was prepared to have this standoff,” Dayton said.
Throughout the night, police fired tear gas into the house and used some loud distraction devices.
Around 6 a.m., flames were reported at the back of the house and the man came out the front.
“He was confronted by the tactical team,” Dayton said. “He failed to obey commands — show me your hands, put the gun down. Some more gunfire was exchanged, and the suspect went down.”
He died at the scene.
Firefighters entered the house as soon as it was safe, but flames burned through the roof. Video on KOMO-TV showed the home fully engulfed. It’s unknown how the fire started.
More than 100 officers from surrounding agencies helped Hoquiam police through the standoff. Neighbors were evacuated. Nearby streets including the main coastal route, Highway 101, were shut down for a time. (more…)
Comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Hoquiam, standoff
March 27, 2013 at 11:51 AM
UPDATE: Police officer shot in Hoquiam; suspect barricaded
UPDATE: 1:50 p.m. | HOQUIAM (AP) — A Hoquiam police officer was shot and wounded Wednesday morning while attempting to arrest a man.
Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate tells KXRO the officer was shot in the side and is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a hospital.
Officers returned fire. It’s unknown if the suspect was hit. He’s inside.
Police have surrounded the home while they attempt to negotiate.
Police say a 53-year-old woman and 49-year-old-man were wanted on arrest warrants. Officers arrested the woman Tuesday but the man was away. As they returned Wednesday, police say the man produced a firearm and shot at the officers.
Traffic has been blocked in the area during the standoff.
Comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Hoquiam, officer shot
February 7, 2013 at 2:04 PM
Peep hole cut in Hoquiam woman’s bedroom
HOQUIAM (AP) — A Hoquiam woman heard noises above her apartment bedroom and discovered holes cut in the ceiling above her bed.
She also told police she saw her neighbor acting suspiciously in the hall.
KXRO reports officers questioned the man, who is a registered sex offender, and booked him into jail for a possible charge of voyeurism.
Comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: ceiling voyeur, hole, Hoquiam
July 15, 2012 at 4:15 PM
Hoquiam murder victim identified as corrections officer
A man who was found dead in Hoquiam early Saturday was a corrections officer at a Shelton Prison.
Jonathon Favro, 20, had worked at the Washington Corrections Center since February. His most recent post was working in the inmate visitation room, said Chad Lewis, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.
A 16-year-old suspect has been arrested for allegedly killing Favro during a fight at an apartment complex, said Hoquiam police Chief Jeff Myers.
The investigation began early Saturday when a police officer came upon a white car that had crashed into a rock embankment. The car was empty, but the officer saw blood on the driver’s door and a large knife in the roadway, according to Hoquiam police.
As officers investigated, police received a call from a mother worried that her son was “going to do something terrible.” The boy lived near the crash scene, and police say they interviewed the teenager and that he said he had stabbed a man during an altercation in an apartment complex and that the man had driven off in a white car, police said.
A few moments later officers found a male down on the ground in a yard off of an alley about two blocks away. Medics were called. The coroner pronounced Favro dead at the scene, Myers said.
Lewis said that he could not comment on the Hoquiam police investigation. Hoquiam police could not be reached for comment.
Department of Corrections counselors were on site at the Shelton prison today to help staff who knew Favro.
Comments | More in The Blotter | Topics: Department of Corrections, homicide, Hoquiam
January 9, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Generator fumes sicken Hoquiam family of 5
The Associated Press
HOQUIAM — The friend of a Hoquiam family may have saved 5 lives Sunday night by discovering they were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Hoquiam Fire Department tells KBKW the power was disconnected at the home and the family was running a generator in the basement.
The friend visited the home, discovered the fumes and called 911. All five family members were taken to a hospital for treatment and one was transferred to a hospital in Seattle.
Comments | More in General news | Topics: carbon monoxide, fumes, generator
December 13, 2011 at 10:59 AM
Seattle Aquarium mourns the loss of a fur seal
A northern fur seal in declining health was euthanized at the Seattle Aquarium. The seal, named Al, was 19-years-old.
“Losing an old friend is always difficult, but Al had a wonderful history that we will always be remembered,” Traci Belting, marine mammal curator at the Aquarium said in a news release.
The fur seal was discovered in a cow pasture in Hoquiam in 1993. The pup had become disoriented in a storm and veered far from the ocean. The seal was named Al after the then new vice president Al Gore, a noted environmentalist.
Because he was so small, the National Marine Fisheries Service said Al was unfit to be returned to the wild, so he was sent to the Seattle Aquarium, where he lived longer than any other male fur seal there.
He eventually picked up the nickname, “Big Al” and sired a pup, Isaac, who is now 11 and on loan to the breeding program at Boston’s New England Aquarium.
The Aquarium said it is rare for male fur seals to live past their mid-teens. During his life, Big Al was valuable to researchers, who studied his food intake and weight changes.
In recent weeks, it was difficult for Al to eat and he was unable to haul himself out of the water.
Comments | More in General news | Topics: fur seal, Hoquiam, National Marine Fisheries
November 28, 2011 at 6:51 AM
The Morning Memo / Monday: Sunny?! You betcha
Weather: When’s this rain gonna stop? It has. And we’ll even see sun today. What, are we dreaming? Nope. Weather Service says partly sunny and a high of 47 degrees. Yeah, baby. And what’s this? Sunny Wednesday, Thursday and Friday? Hello! That’s in the forecast, too. The details.
More weather: The numbers: Although we will have some sun, we thought it might be worthwhile looking at how wet it has been so far this month … Not so much as you might think. As of Sunday, we’ve had 5.07 inches of rain, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service. That’s .84 of an inch less than average for this point in November.
Of that, 2.06 inches fell during a 24-hour period Nov. 22-23.
We’ve had measurable rain on 15 of the 27 days.
We’ve had only one clear day, 16 partly cloudy days and 10 cloudy days.
Sounds like Seattle to us!
Traffic: The tanker crash on I-405 last night has been cleared, and the highway has been opened. The map and the cams.
Oops, not so politically correct? Selah Mayor Bob Jones says he has no regrets about telling a man at a council meeting to get a job and a haircut.
In a bit of shameless self-promotion, two of our stories we recommend reading today:
- Jeff Hodson’s story on the deaths of three children, including a girl from Sedro Wooley, all linked to a controversial parenting guidebook.
- Jerry Brewer’s Sunday piece on the man who was separated from his siblings, including triplet sisters, and spent a half-century searching for them. You might want to have a look. And the comments, too.
A brother's search, a family reunited. A photo of triplets Susan Walters, from left, Debbie Custer and Janna Kach is taken with their brother Orlando Garduno in 1960 in Hoquiam, Wash.
From Jerry’s story:
A father’s dark secret
Orlando remembers his stepfather as a tall, handsome, bald man who wore fancy suits. He was a machinist, and “a real brilliant man,” Orlando recalled. He was nice to the children, but he was always antsy.
Kniseley had a dark secret: He had robbed a bank in Detroit and escaped from prison.
Most-read stories on seattletimes.com this morning:
Comments | More in Morning Memo | Topics: Hoquiam, Seattle, Selah
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