Area teen wins at Westminster

Anders Thoreson, a 17-year-old Snohomish High School junior, and his German short-haired Pointer, Topper, won the coveted Westminster Kennel Club junior-handler championship for youths 18 and under Tuesday night. Thoreson, a cross-country and long-distance runner, defeated seven other finalists at the competition at Madison Square Garden in New York City. A total of 123 youths competed over two days.

To qualify for Westminster, junior handlers must accumulate 10 wins in a year. Thoreson did not meet that standard until November, which is considered late in the season.

The winner has been a junior handler for nine years, advancing through the 4-H ranks in Washington and Oregon shows.

Asked how he manages his running career and dog shows, Thoreson said: "Some weeks it's pretty tough, and I get very little sleep."

Still, he's managed to get a 3.87 grade-point average and hopes to become a veterinarian someday.

Woman killed

in crash identified

A woman killed Tuesday morning when her car collided head-on with an unmarked State Patrol car has been identified as Lydia L. Ballantine, 35, of Kent.

The crash occurred shortly before 2:30 a.m. on Highway 18 near Highway 169, where Trooper Timothy Hanson, 32, an eight-year veteran, was on the lookout for aggressive, erratic and drunken drivers, said Trooper Kelly Spangler, a Patrol spokeswoman. The woman's car crossed the centerline before the crash, Spangler said.

Hanson was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to be treated for a broken ankle and other injuries, authorities said.

after fatal shooting

A 20-year-old Federal Way man was fatally shot Monday night and police are now looking for an 18-year-old seen fleeing the man's house.

Just after 11 p.m., officers received reports that a man had been shot outside a home in the 33000 block of 22nd Place South, said police spokeswoman Stacy Flores. The man made it back inside his house, where he died from an apparent gunshot wound, she said.

Witnesses and other people who called a police tip line helped detectives identify John K. Horn as the suspect, Flores said. He is described as 5 feet 6, 130 pounds with a thin build and long hair that he wears in cornrows or an afro. Police, who have issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, consider him armed and dangerous.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released the victim's name. An autopsy is scheduled today.

Anyone with information is asked to call 911.

Murder try, rape

net man 30 years

A Bothell firefighter who pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to raping and trying to kill his wife after she served him with divorce papers was sentenced Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court to more than 30 years in prison.

Before a packed courtroom, Richard Allen Kirk, 36, was sentenced for first-degree attempted murder and first-degree rape, said Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Craig Matheson.

The sentence was five years longer than the prosecutor's recommendation because the judge believed there was a chance Kirk would retaliate against his ex-wife when he got out, Matheson said.

According to prosecutors, Kirk forced his wife into his van in Snohomish on July 8 and drove her to Storm Lake in Snohomish County, where he beat and raped her.

She ran to a nearby home, whose residents called police, prosecutors said.

Times staff and news services