Seattle bank-robbery suspect wounded

At 12:45 p.m., a man entered the bank at 6248 California Ave. S.W., told a teller he had a gun and demanded money, Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said. As officers were responding to a 911 call, a bank employee or customer flagged them down and pointed out the suspect; the two officers jumped from their police car and chased the man, Whitcomb said.

At least one officer fired his gun in the 4200 block of Fauntleroy Way Southwest, hitting the 53-year-old Seattle man, who was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, Whitcomb said. No one else was hurt, although one person in the bank was treated for chest pain, he said.

Police are looking for a gray car, possibly an older-model Lincoln, Whitcomb said. At the time of the shooting, the vehicle sped north on 42nd Avenue Southwest, leading police to believe it may have been intended as a getaway car, he said. No other details were immediately available.

Gunman killed

by deputy identified

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has identified Mark Prince, 44, as the gunman fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy late Friday in Burien.

Prince suffered gunshot wounds to his arm and chest, and a bullet may have punctured his heart and lung, a medical-examiner investigator said.

Around 10 p.m. Friday, sheriff's deputies went to an apartment complex near South 177th Place and Ambaum Boulevard South after receiving 911 calls about a man firing a handgun in the parking lot, said sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. By the time deputies arrived, Prince had returned to his apartment and was firing the handgun and a rifle from his balcony, Urquhart said.

A 35-year-old deputy fired a single shot, hitting Prince; a SWAT team entered the residence a couple hours later and found Prince dead inside, Urquhart said.

Firefighters vote

to accept contract

Seattle firefighters have voted to accept a new contract with the city, ending yearlong negotiations.

The new four-year contract gives firefighters a retroactive 2.5 percent raise for 2005 and a 3.3 percent raise in 2006. Raises in 2007 and 2008 will be tied to inflation and will be at least 2 percent. Starting firefighters are now paid about $52,000 a year, rising to $65,000 after five years.

The city also agreed to fund 10 additional firefighter positions and pay larger "longevity" raises to firefighters who have served at least 15 years. In exchange, firefighters agreed to work 48 additional hours — two additional shifts — per year.

The contract vote, announced Monday, was close, with 401 votes in favor and 350 against, according to the Web site for the Seattle Fire Fighters Union Local 27. The firefighters had been without a contract since January and rejected the city's first contract offer in June.

Board delays ruling

on challenged votes

The King County Canvassing Board plans to decide Monday whether to count ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election by about 180 voters whose registrations have been challenged by Republicans.

The board had been expected to rule on some of the challenges Tuesday, but county Elections Director Dean Logan, who chairs the three-member panel, said it decided to wait until after hearings on all the challenges are completed. They are expected to end today.

Republicans say the voters are registered illegally at addresses that are private mailbox businesses or storage complexes. They also say the registrations are evidence Logan and his boss, Democratic County Executive Ron Sims, aren't keeping the voter rolls clean.

Democrats say the challenges are a political ploy to intimidate voters and embarrass Sims.

Man killed in fight

at pub identified

A 43-year-old tavern employee who was stabbed to death after trying to intervene in a fight in Kent has been identified as George Mosher Jr.

According to investigators with the King County Medical Examiner's Office, Mosher died from a stab wound to the chest that punctured his aorta and left lung. His death has been ruled a homicide.

Mosher was off-duty when a fight broke out among 10 to 12 people outside Eli's Pub, 24228 104th Ave. S.E., just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Kent police spokesman Paul Petersen said. Mosher was stabbed and died at the scene. A 32-year-old Renton man also was stabbed, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Petersen said.

The assailants ran away before police could arrive, he said. Police had not identified any suspects.

Body recovered

under Montana falls

Divers have recovered the body of an Everett man from deep water below a waterfall in Upper McDonald Creek in West Glacier, Mont., authorities said.

The man was identified Tuesday as Dennis Brooks, 40, of Everett, Flathead County Deputy Coroner and sheriff's Sgt. Bob Provo said. His body was recovered Monday evening.

Patrick Suddath, the West Lakes District ranger, said the man had been with three other people at a viewing platform.

"It's my understanding that the victim was not within the platform area when he apparently slipped into the water," Suddath said.

He said the man was swept through cascading falls below the platform.

Divers rappelled down a steep, icy face above the creek and found the man's body under 21 feet of water.

The park called for the dive team shortly before 4 p.m. The man's body was found at 6:45 p.m., officials said.

Child-care providers

vote to join SEIU

About 10,000 Washington family child-care providers have voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 925, the union said.

SEIU is among the largest and fastest-growing in the country, with 1.8 million members.

The local represents 20,000 public-service workers in Washington, including staff at the University of Washington, school districts, local government and nonprofit organizations.

In a mail election conducted by the American Arbitration Association over the past three weeks, the vote was 92 percent in favor of joining the local. Washington is the second state, after Illinois, with unionized child-care providers, the union said.

SEIU helped unionize 26,000 in-home health-care workers in 2001.

Teen convicted

in coach's slaying

A 15-year-old boy was convicted of murder Tuesday for stabbing a football coach to death during a 2004 robbery attempt.

Jordan Castillo, who was tried as an adult, was also convicted by a Benton County Superior Court jury of attempted theft in the death of King Robert "Bob" Mars, 44.

Castillo could face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Mars, a Kiona-Benton High School assistant football coach, was killed Sept. 4, 2004.

In March, Robert A. Suarez, 17, was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for his part in the crime.

Mars, who was also a veteran sixth-grade teacher who lived in Richland, was stabbed in the stomach during an attack in the hallway at the middle school where he taught.

Seattle

gets home detention

A former subagent employee who accepted bribes to wash titles of cars that had been written off by insurance carriers as total losses escaped jail time Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez accepted a joint recommendation from the government and her defense attorney to sentence Amy Haeckl to six months' home detention, three years' probation and 150 hours of community service. He also ordered her to forfeit $18,000 — the estimated amount of money she received in bribes.

Haeckl, 28, formerly worked at a Renton licensing agency that subcontracted with the state Department of Licensing. In that capacity, she was repeatedly approached by Igor Ivanchuk, who paid her to wash titles of hundreds of cars that had been branded as rebuilt.

Last Friday Martinez sentenced Ivanchuk, 49, of Kent and Ivan Braga, 55, of Edmonds to 18 months and one year in prison, respectively; last summer, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to forge state securities. Martinez agreed that Haeckl, who earlier pleaded guilty to the same charge, deserved a break because her cooperation was crucial in helping authorities convict Ivanchuk and Braga.

U.S. fugitive appears

An extradition hearing for an American fugitive on the U.S. Marshals Service's most wanted list will begin Dec. 13, a Dublin judge ordered Tuesday.

Frederick Russell, 27, of Pullman, didn't speak during his brief appearance in Irish High Court, where judge Michael Peart approved his lawyers' request to delay the hearing until Dec. 13. On that date, the court is expected to specify the date when the full extradition hearing will begin, most likely just before Christmas or in early January.

Police arrested Russell in Dublin Oct. 23 — four years to the day after the former Washington State University student fled three counts of vehicular homicide and four counts of vehicular assault in Washington state.

On Nov. 14, Russell testified that he would face death threats if returned to face trial in Washington, but a lower District Court judge rejected his application for bail.

Washington police and prosecutors contend that Russell was over the state's drunken-driving limit and traveling about 90 mph when he tried to overtake other cars and then crashed into them, killing three WSU students.

A tipster spotted Russell working as a security guard in a Dublin lingerie shop in January, shortly after his details and photo were posted on the U.S. Marshals' Web site listing its 15 most wanted fugitives.

Olympia

No-confidence vote

by store managers

Protesting what they consider a deteriorating work environment, managers at 97 of the state's 161 liquor stores have delivered a vote of no confidence in Washington's Liquor Control Board.

The symbolic vote was orchestrated by the liquor-store managers' bargaining unit of the Washington Public Employees Association (WPEA).

Managers allege indifference to their union rights, poor recruitment policies and micro-management by the three-person liquor-control board. They also claim the board's administrative director is degrading their profession and the smooth running of the state's liquor stores.

In September, the WPEA filed 40 grievances in response to proposed changes in scheduling and comp-time policies, as well as requirements that managers forfeit extra pay for working Sunday shifts.

WPEA President Greg Parker said store managers were not looking for additional pay or benefits but "stronger leadership and more involvement in decision making." He vowed further action, such as informational pickets in front of stores, unless managers were afforded more respect.

The state collects $245 million in net revenue a year from the sale, licensing and distribution of spirits and alcohol.

Cellphone lot

to open at airport

The Port of Seattle today will open a new and expanded cellphone waiting lot at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The new lot is on Air Cargo Road in front of the Delta Airlines cargo building. It is directly across the street from the Air Cargo Road exit from the main road to the airport, about a two-minute drive to the airport baggage claim.

Drivers can wait in the lot for free for arriving passengers. The old lot was too small, said airport officials, and had just 15 spaces. The new lot has 43 parking spots.

The original cellphone lot was begun as an experiment last Christmas and was designed for people exchanging phone calls with passengers needing to be picked up.

Times staff and news services