Category Archives: Why the Cops?

2010’s Officer-Involved Shootings on the Kitsap Peninsula

On Tuesday night, Bainbridge Island police shot and killed an ax-wielding man, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

It’s the fifth time this year that police — on duty or off — on the Kitsap Peninsula have resorted to lethal force. Here are the previous incidents:

In February, Suquamish officers opened fire on a man who drove a car at them on Nelson Street. The shooting was justified, according to the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office.

In July, a Poulsbo officer on a traffic stop in Silverdale shot and killed a Bremerton man who police said was reaching for a gun. That shooting was also ruled justified by the prosecutor.

In September, an off-duty Washington State trooper at his home in Olalla shot and killed a man who’d hit him in the head with a steel rod. That shooting remains under investigation.

In early October, a Mason County deputy was hit in the leg with gunfire following a chase in Allyn. Though the investigation is not complete, early reports indicate a deputy had fired a shot at the suspect’s car after he’d begun using it as a “deadly weapon,” according to the sheriff’s office.

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Protest Planned Against Border Patrol Checkpoints

Apparently not everyone is thrilled at the idea of U.S. border patrol checkpoints on the Olympic Peninsula.

A group called the “Stop the Checkpoints Committee” will host a rally at the Port Angeles federal building, followed by a March.

The border patrol has been holding checkpoints around the Olympic Peninsula — including two just on the other side of the Hood Canal Bridge — looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and other threats to national security.

The border patrol says it’s using a federal law that authorizes the checkpoints “a reasonable distance” from the U.S. border. That distance has been determined to be 100 miles.

The flyer claims the rally is to “DEFEND immigrant workers and their families,” and also says: “NO Police State on the Olympic Peninsula.” The protest will begin at 1 p.m. in downtown Port Angeles.

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NK’s Wave of Strange, Tragic Crime Continues

An attempted shooting Sunday night on the Port Gamble S’Klallam reservation  is the latest in what has been a bizarre, all-too-tragic year of criminal activity in Kitsap County’s north end.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but nary a homicide had occurred in North Kitsap — Poulsbo city limits northward — for about a decade before last October.

Today, two men await trial for alleged murders that occurred in Kingston. David Robert Adams was arraigned Aug. 4 in the strangling death of Richard Hugh Jones Jr. And last October saw the stabbing death of Jeffrey Allen McKinstry, whose son Garrett McKinstry is believed by sheriff’s deputies to be the culprit.

Also, a burglary ring involving more than 100 break ins and $250,000 in property  was uncovered by sheriff’s deputies earlier this year that resulted in numerous arrests and convictions.

So what gives?

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Speed Trap Haters Unite

Here’s a Web site some of you will want to check out. The National Motorists Association appears to have banded speed trap haters across the country together for an informative site that lists cops’ favorite fishing holes.

You can find places in our own West Sound, too. Here’s their list of Washington cities. You can also add a speed trap and learn how to fight a ticket.

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Woman’s Tragic Death Continues Strange Kitsap Trend

FireSidney.jpg

We’re learning more about Linda Malcom, the woman who was apparently stabbed to death sometime before a fire at her Sidney Avenue home early Wednesday.

According to the Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill., who talked to Linda’s sister, Dianna, Malcom attended Southeast High School and joined the Navy in the early 1980s. Stationed in Washington, she remained here after she was discharged, the paper reported.

We also know she worked at the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office, according to former deputy prosecuting attorneys Robert Naon and Stan Glisson, for whom she once served as legal assistant. The courthouse is just a few blocks from where she lived on 1147 Sidney Avenue.

Following her time at the prosecutor’s office, she worked for Ron Ness’ law firm, also in Port Orchard, for three years. Recently, she’d been employed by Bob Houle, a Belfair attorney, Ness said. Her sister and a neighbor have said she had planned to move and was headed for a job at the Social Security Administration.

Picking up on an earlier blog, Kitsap really doesn’t have very many homicides (after a particularly grim 2005 with eight, there were three in 2006 and one in 2007.

The most unusual thing about the ones we have (at least recently) is that they’ve all been stabbings.

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Time to Christen the Cop Shop

Daa De Daaaaaaa, Da Da Da De Daaaaaa …

The Bremerton Police Department’s new downtown station (pictured) has been up and running for about a month now, but the cops inside are ready for their public-close up.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, police, with the help of the mayor, will cut the ribbon on the 29,000 square-foot department, one that’s brought the agency from two roofs — patrol division and operations — into a unified building.

If you’re there, you’ll also get a tour, including a bunch of new cool technology for crime scene investigation and evidence.

(The melody at the top of the page was meant to be the Dragnet theme, by the way.)

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Stealing a Car? Rule No. 1: Don’t Run Out of Gas

I received some tips today that a bunch of cops were on the side of Highway 3 with a “suspect vehicle.”

After talking with Lt. Clint Casebolt of the Washington State Patrol, I found out why. Turns out a trooper had stopped on the side of the road at about 11 a.m. today with a car that had broken down.

The car was stolen. The driver had run out of gas. And two people were taken to jail.

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Why All the Cops? (x2)

Blogger’s Note: Here is another installment of your inquiries after seeing lots of lights and sirens somewhere in our area. Two questions — one in an e-mail and one on this blog — are answered below. Feel free to add your own questions or comments as well.

The first question concerns a pedestrian accident that one reader says occurred on Sedgwick Road in South Kitsap. The other inquiry comes from a blog commenter who was wondering why a bunch of patrol deputies had responded to Colchester Drive — also in SK — on February 16 or 17.

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Why All the Cops?

(Blogger’s Note: This is the first installment of what I hope can become a frequent topic. I will often get e-mails or calls from readers asking, “what the heck were all those cops doing.” Well … read on to find out what they were up to in North Kitsap last Saturday.)

Blog commenter Susan Sophia writes:

“My husband are looking at purchasing a house in Poulsbo. On Saturday (Sept. 2) we were driving around to go look at a house and on Totten Road just east of Widme there was a bunch of police cars from all the cities, Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island Suquamish… a K-9 unit, the (Kitsap County) sheriffs … the whole nine yards.

How the heck can we find out what that was all about?”

After some digging, it turns out this incident started on Bainbridge Island and spilled across the Agate Pass Bridge, according to Lt. Chris Jensen of the Bainbridge Island Police Department.

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