Local News

The Associated Press

SILVERDALE – A gun went off inside a Kitsap County store after a man dropped it. No one was injured.

The Kitsap Sun reports that a 58-year-old Poulsbo man told deputies he had removed the .38-caliber, two-shot Derringer pistol from a holster on his belt before he entered the Cost Plus World Market in Silverdale on Saturday afternoon.

He put the gun in a coat pocket, but when he was in the middle of the store, he bent over — and the pistol fell out and discharged.

Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson says there were about 35 customers and workers inside, and staff used the public address system to tell everyone to evacuate.

By the time deputies arrived, mall security relying on witness descriptions had found the man in the Barnes & Noble bookstore next door.

The bullet damaged the leg of a day bed and lodged in a stack of nesting rope baskets.

The gun owner, who had a valid concealed weapon permit, was not arrested, but deputies forwarded the case to the prosecutor’s office for consideration of reckless endangerment charges.

 The Associated Press

A 40-year-old Bremerton woman was killed in a crash early this morning in Silverdale.

Sheriff’s deputies in Kitsap County have identified the woman as Lori Lynn Johnson, 40.

Johnson was the passenger in a Nissan car that was struck by a Lincoln sedan traveling at a high rate of speed, said sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson.

The 28-year-old woman who was driving the sedan — her identity has not been released — ran a red light and struck the Nissan Versa as it was heading east on Bucklin Hill Road, Wilson said. The force of the collision caused the Nissan to rotate several times before finally stopping about 100-feet away. After hitting the Nissan, the Lincoln sedan struck a galvanized steel street light pole at the northeast corner of the intersection, shearing the pole at the base, Wilson said.

Johnson died at the scene. The Nissan driver, a 40-year-old man from Matlock, Mason County, suffered serious injuries and was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Wilson said.

The Lincoln driver was briefly hospitalized before being booked into the Kitsap County Jail for investigation of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, possession of cocaine, possession of heroin and possession of methamphetamine. The Lincoln driver is also being held on a felony warrant out of California for a parole violation stemming from a burglary conviction.

She is being held at the Kitsap County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

A blood draw was taken from the suspect to test for drugs and or alcohol after this morning’s crash. Results have not been released.

Both occupants of the Nissan were wearing seat belts. The driver of the Lincoln was not, Wilson said.

A 34-year-old Bremerton woman is in custody after she allegedly went into a  Key Bank on Silverdale Way this afternoon and presented a note demanding money and claiming she had explosives, according to Kitsap County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson.

Wilson said the bank manager called police around 2:40 p.m. after the woman entered the Silverdale bank and made her demands. He said she claimed that the bomb, or explosives, would go off automatically at a certain time.

Deputies, SWAT teams, negotiators and the Washington State Patrol’s bomb squad surrounded the bank, he said. At some point, Wilson said, an explosives expert entered the bank and decreed that the woman did not have explosives on her and that there were none in the bank.

How the expert knew that, Wilson would not say.

However, once that was known, the woman “voluntarily exited the bank,” he said. By 5 p.m., she was being interviewed by detectives and officers were clearing the bank.

A malfunctioning bulb in a tanning bed is believed to be the cause of a fire that destroyed six businesses in a strip mall in Silverdale on Sunday, Kitsap fire officials said.  

The three-alarm fire at the mall, located at the corner of Silverdale Way and Kitsap Mall Boulevard, started in the Desert Sun tanning salon at about 2:15 p.m. It  spread quickly along the length of the building in open attic space, fire officials said. 

The building was not equipped with sprinklers, which were not required when the building was constructed, according to fire officials.

No injuries were reported.

Firefighters are working to put out a three-alarm fire in the Kitsap Mall area of Silverdale.

A Kitsap County dispatcher said Sunday the fire is at a small shopping center in the 9900 block of Silverdale Way.

Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue is on the scene.