Local News

The Associated Press

OREGON CITY, Ore. — Oregon authorities say an autopsy shows an 88-year-old man who set fire to his house and fatally shot a police officer also killed himself.

A statement released Tuesday by Clackamas County sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Wurpes says Lawrence Cambra’s death was a suicide caused by a single gunshot to the chest.

Investigators previously said the sheriff’s office SWAT team shot and killed Cambra on Sunday, after he set fire to his Oregon City home and shot reserve Officer Robert Libke in the face.

Police say it’s still unclear what caused Cambra’s behavior. The man and his 70-year-old girlfriend had been involved in an altercation earlier that day.

Clackamas County officials didn’t say whether any SWAT team bullets actually hit Cambra.

It appears a man fatally stabbed himself this morning in Shoreline, says the King County Sheriff’s Office

At 9:23 a.m., a caller phoned 911 to report that a man may have taken a pair of sunglasses from his truck  in Shoreline. The caller said he approached the man, who then pulled out a knife, the Sheriff’s Office said.

When deputies arrived, they found the man on the ground, suffering from several knife wounds. They also found a knife near him.

The sheriff’s office says it appears the wounds were self-inflicted. The man died at the scene.

The sheriff’s office provides police services to the city under contract, although officers wear Shoreline uniforms and drive patrol cars marked “Shoreline police.”

A man fell to his death Monday afternoon from the top of a nine-story parking garage in downtown Seattle in what police say is a likely suicide.

“Our preliminary investigation indicates it is probably a suicide,” said Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel, adding that it will be up to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the man’s cause of death.

Around 2 p.m., police were called to the Second and Union Parking Garage on Second Avenue, where they found the man dead on the sidewalk.

According to officers on the scene, the man was smoking crack inside the parking structure shortly before his death.

The Associated Press

PORTLAND — Trained volunteers wearing orange vests plan to begin patrolling Portland’s Vista Bridge Thursday evening to prevent more people from committing suicide.

The group Friends of Vista Bridge told KOIN-TV volunteers will be on the so-called “suicide bridge” until mid-August, when the city plans to install temporary fencing to prevent jumping.

There have already been four suicides this year on the bridge in the Goose Hollow neighborhood west of downtown Portland.

The Associated Press

PORTLAND — The Multnomah County medical examiner’s office says a Vancouver, Wash., man whose body was found in the Columbia River over the weekend committed suicide.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office says 27-year-old Drake Edward Johnson was a work release escape. He had been arrested in March on drug-related charges and failed to show up July 17 at the county Jail Work Center.

The Oregonian reports the Coast Guard recovered his body Sunday in the North Portland harbor near the railroad bridge.

MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — The sister of a 19-year-old Pullman, Wash., man who committed suicide last weekend is seeking an apology from an Idaho sheriff’s deputy she says harassed her brother via Facebook in the days before his death.

Alise Smith said her brother’s decision to end his life was his own, but she believes the comments that Andrew Cain received about arrest warrants in Latah County became too much for him.

The sheriff’s office Facebook page included a “wanted poster” and a post congratulating Cain on being the county’s most wanted person of the month for June. Smith said a deputy also sent private messages to her brother via Facebook. Sheriff Wayne Rausch did not immediately reply to an email and phone message seeking confirmation of the private messages.

“It has never been my policy to include editorializing in media releases pertaining to the location and apprehension of persons wanted by the court,” Rausch said in a statement released by his office. “That situation has been resolved.”

Rausch did not confirm or deny that a deputy sent private messages to Cain via Facebook.

Smith said she understood the “wanted poster” but felt the “congratulations” comment and the private messages were an abuse of power.

She told KLEW-TV that she received a text from her brother early last week that said he felt like putting a bullet in his brain. The message included a screen shot of Facebook messages from a deputy, Smith said.

“Eventually, it all just got too much to handle because other people were texting him and messaging him on Facebook and he just couldn’t handle all of the people telling him how awful a person he was,” Smith told KLEW.

Cain fatally shot himself Sunday, Whitman County Coroner Pete Martin said. (more…)

Police say there was no motive, argument or reason they could find behind the  fatal shooting on Thursday of a Tacoma man at the hands of his neighbor.

The shooting occurred shortly before 8 pm. in the 4600 block of North Ferdinand Street, police said.

According to Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool, the 51-year-old suspect had been on his back porch, firing his gun, before he walked over to his neighbor’s house and shot the man.

The suspect then fled the area and went to a friend’s house in Gig Harbor where he reportedly threatened to kill himself, Cool said. When Pierce County sheriff’s deputies arrived, the suspect was dead, she said.

“There was no reason, no real motive, no argument or big extenuating circumstances,” said Cool about the suspect.  “He had issues and apparently this was his way of dealing with them.”

Neighbors of both the suspect and victim, neither of whom have been publicly identified, told the Tacoma News Tribune that the suspect was a heavy drinker who had recently lost his job. “He was paranoid and would frequently confront people in the area, ranting about how much he hated cellphones and same-sex couples,” the News Tribune reported.

Neighbors told the paper the suspect had recently begun to talk of killing people.

A head-on crash that killed two drivers in Pierce County Monday night may have been intentionally caused by one of the drivers committing suicide.

“He’d left a suicide note saying he was going to drive his car 120 mph into a pole,” Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer told the News Tribune of Tacoma. “He got his car up to high speed to hit a pole and instead hit a truck, killing the other guy instantly.”

Troyer said deputies discovered the suicide note when they went to inform the family of the 19-year-old driver who crossed the highway’s center line  in his Ford Mustang.

Investigators say he was travelling at more than 100 mph when he collided with a Toyota Tundra driver by a 50-year-old man.

Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not yet been released.

The Associated Press

Police are investigating after a 50-year-old man committed suicide during a gun-safety class at a Bellevue shooting range.

Seattlepi.com reports that Brian J. Parry shot himself in the head with a pistol Sunday during a class a West Coast Armory, a gun range and dealer with outlets in Bellevue and Issaquah. More than a dozen people, including children, reportedly were present.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office earlier this week ruled Parry’s death a suicide. Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate says the investigation into his death is ongoing.

According to West Coast’s website, the gun range offered an entry-level handgun course the day of the shooting. Participants paid $75 for three hours of instruction meant to teach students how to load and use pistols and revolvers