Category Archives: Breaking News

KFC: Terrorism Victim

josh farley

Andrew Binion writes:

Vandalism at a Bremerton Kentucky Fried Chicken last week may have indeed been the work of a network of direct-action animal-rights activists.

An e-mail received Monday from a representative from the Animal Liberation Front Press Office, which is a sort of an independent PR operation, said that the vandalism at the Naval Avenue KFC was likely the work of the group.

Autopsy Friday in Suspicious Death

josh farley

Bremerton Police detectives spent most of the night at the corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue trying to ascertain how a 39-year-old man died of stab wounds.

Their answers will likely come during the Kitsap County Coroner’s Office autopsy of the body of Mark David Simonton.

I spent some time this morning at the scattered cottages on that corner, and found that many of the people who live there a Kitsap Mental Health patients. The owner of the homes has received help from the agency in placing some of its patients.

None of them believed anything was wrong at Simonton’s home, nor did they hear the 39-year-old leaving his house shortly before midnight Thursday to knock on another man’s door for help.

Detectives continue the investigation. But we’ll just have to see what the coroner’s findings are.

Attempted Murder or First-degree Assault?

josh farley

Yesterday, we reported that a warrant was issued for a 28-year-old Bremerton man wanted by police for attempted murder.

The man, Darrin D. Maiden, is alleged to have shot a 27-year-old woman on Montgomery Avenue and fled the scene Tuesday afternoon. He has yet to be caught.

However, when I received the court documents charging Maiden from the Kitsap County Clerk’s Office, a warrant for attempted murder — despite the cops’ request for that charge in court documents — was nowhere to be found. Instead, it was for first-degree assault.

“What gives?” I asked Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Chris Casad.

Will Charges in Baby Death to Follow Kitsap’s Example?

josh farley

Inside the Mason County jail, Shawna M. Doidge, 22, of Shelton, awaits possible charges county prosecutors could bring against her.

The Mason County Sheriff’s Office and Child Protective Services have been building a case against her since her 19-month-old son Nickolas’ (pictured) drowning death April 19.

The sheriff’s office has finished its investigation, which concluded in her arrest Tuesday. Their recommendation: a second-degree negligent homicide charge, under the state’s felony murder statute.

If prosecutors elect to charge it that way, it wouldn’t be the first negligent homicide charge on the Great Peninsula in recent years.

Two Young Girls, Two Tragic Stories

josh farley

Two back-to-back tragedies involving young girls unfolded in South Kitsap Monday.

In the first story, posted Tuesday morning on our web site, a 2 1/2 year-old girl drowned after her father had apparently lost track of her on a 5-acre property, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

Efforts to revive the girl, who was found in a planting pot filled with water, were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead at Mary Bridge Hospital.

In a separate incident, a 3-month old infant was apparently assaulted “by violent means” Monday, also in South Kitsap, the sheriff’s office said.

The baby girl remains in critical condition at Mary Bridge hospital, and her father, Jason Hanning (pictured, courtesy of KOMO TV), 22, has been jailed on suspicion of first-degree assault.

Why Did This Happen?

josh farley

The Kitsap County Coroner’s Office and the Navy have now both confirmed that Capt. G. Lindsay Perkins Jr. (pictured) died of an apparent self-inflicted gun shot wound to the head.

But why?

An Utter Disturbance

josh farley

Following an “hours-long” ordeal chronicled by my colleague Derek Sheppard, two cows and a young bull escaped from their home and ran “amok” in East Bremerton. There’s a video recently posted on YouTube, by user famineleopard, of part of the animals’ ill-fated journey.

Check it out here. I’d host it, but it contains some questionable language.

Traffic Stops and Fugitive Apprehensions

josh farley

It took awhile and the help of virtually every law enforcement agency in Kitsap County. But in the end, the thing that led authorities to Duane Michael “Mike” Sloan, 33, was a traffic stop.

Sloan was on the run for his role in a possible kidnapping scheme, according to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office. He was last seen Friday after allegedly leading police on a chase through a neighborhood north of Poulsbo. But he was caught on the 300 block of Hewitt during a traffic stop at approximately 12:46 a.m., wearing a black wig and ball cap.

The driver he was riding with apparently ran a stop sign so police stopped the car.

Law enforcement officers nationwide will tell you traffic stops more than anything else lead to fugitive apprehensions.

Encounters Along A Murder Story

josh farley

On any given day in this business, you never know who you’re going to come across.

I awoke Wednesday to a call from Sun photographer Larry Steagall, who had heard over his police scanner that there’d been a killing in Bremerton.

After going to the scene, I met up with another of our “photogs,” Carolyn J. Yaschur, and listened in on the police department’s press conference. Bottom line: a Bremerton woman, Kimberly Shine, was brutally killed allegedly by her brother with an ax. (Read the story I wrote about it here.)