Decapitated snake bites Prosser man

Prosser, Benton County

Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous. That's what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned Monday night, when a 5-foot rattler slithered onto his Central Washington property, about 50 miles southeast of Yakima.

Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck.

"When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger," Anderson said. "I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose."

His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and when they arrived 10 minutes later, Anderson's tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 30 miles to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed.

Anderson was in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon.

Mike Livingston, a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, said he had never heard of anyone bitten by a decapitated snake before.

"That's really surprising, but that's an important thing to tell people," he said. "It may have been just a reflex on the part of the snake."

Seattle

Gun collector to get new trial

A federal judge has granted a new trial to Albert K. Kwan, a Bellevue gun collector who was found guilty of illegally possessing a short-barrel rifle after a three-day jury trial in June.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly granted the new trial Aug. 3 after concluding the jury received flawed instructions about the short-barrel rifle charge.

Joseph Conte, Kwan's attorney, contended the jury should have been told that a pistol and stock seized from Kwan had to be connected in order for the jury to conclude he illegally possessed a short-barrel rifle. Zilly agreed with Conte's argument Friday, according to Conte and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle.

The government can appeal Zilly's ruling.

Kwan was once arrested as a material witness in the 2001 slaying of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales.

Kwan, who is not suspected of killing Wales, has been a person of interest because sales records indicate he purchased two Makarov gun barrels in the mid-1990s that were like the one used in the slaying of the longtime federal prosecutor. Kwan has turned over one such barrel but insists he does not remember buying a second one. Prosecutors said he failed a polygraph test about the second barrel.

Burien

Port panel votes to destroy apartments

The Port of Seattle will proceed with the demolition of the Lora Lake apartments in Burien, which housing advocates had been fighting to save. Port commissioners turned down King County's $15.8 million offer to purchase the 162 affordably priced apartments near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, citing a previous promise to the city of Burien to replace it with a cargo warehouse. Commissioners John Creighton, Pat Davis and Lloyd Hara voted in favor of the demolition Thursday and Bob Edwards and Alec Fisken voted against it.

Two lawsuits have been filed to stop the demolition of the 162 affordably priced apartments, which housing advocates called a final foothold that kept many from falling into homelessness.

Spokane

Errors threaten eight DUI cases

Cases for eight drunken-driving defendants in Spokane County may be overturned after the Washington State Patrol discovered errors in a breath-alcohol-testing machine inside the Spokane County Jail.

Barry Logan, head of the Patrol's Forensic Laboratory Bureau, said Thursday that even though 584 cases are affected, only eight people were unfairly charged.

Logan said that in four cases, the defendants registered as having breath alcohol readings of 0.080, the state legal limit. But their actual breath-alcohol reading was 0.079. All four of these defendants pleaded guilty, Logan said.

Defendants in the other four cases registered breath-alcohol readings of 0.15, instead of 0.149. Enhanced penalties can be imposed when a driver's breath alcohol reaches 0.15, the State Patrol said. It's unclear what happened to the defendants in these cases. The prosecutor's office is looking into the disposition of those cases, Logan said.

Vancouver, B.C.

Gunmen kill two in restaurant attack

Two masked gunmen burst into a Chinese restaurant early Thursday and sprayed it with bullets, killing two people and injuring six, police said.

Police said they were called to the Fortune Happiness restaurant in a neighborhood frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes. By the time officers got there about 4:30 a.m., the gunmen had fled.

Police found "a chaotic scene at the restaurant with tables and chairs overturned, customers shot, broken glass and frantic witnesses," a police statement said.

Police did not comment on a motive, but suggested it was not a random shooting.

Of the six injured, one was hospitalized in critical condition, Inspector Bob Chapman said

The windows in the front of the restaurant were blown out. Chapman said there were 9-mm and .45-caliber shell casings on the floor.

East Bremerton

Entangled eagle rescued from tree

A young bald eagle got tangled in baling twine and was suspended from a tree for possibly more than a day before it was rescued in East Bremerton Wednesday.

The eagle was dangling and badly injured when it was spotted by a tourist walking along the beach, said wildlife rehabilitator Sandy Fletcher, of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A tree climber was hired to fetch the panicky bird, entangled at least 70 feet up a tree on a cliff.

The eagle's right leg had at least two visible fractures, Fletcher said.

The Northwest Raptor Center in Sequim will rehabilitate the eagle, hopefully for re-entry into the wild, if the injuries can be healed, said director Jaye Moore.

Fletcher said it is possible that the eagle got the twine stuck on its foot, flew into the tree and panicked after getting caught in the branches.

Seattle Times staff and news services