DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT CENTRALIA MOTEL
• A 23-year-old Chehalis man apparently angry because he thought the mother of his child was texting another man was arrested after police were called to Motel 6 in Centralia last night, where he had allegedly blocked her from leaving and then kicked in a door when she took her phone in the bathroom. Officers responding about 11:30 p.m. to the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue learned she was able to get out to her car where he broke the glass before he took off running, according to the Centralia Police Department. She thought he was going to kill her and the 5-year-old child was present when it occurred, police said. Subsequently located and booked into the Lewis County Jail was Nicholas L. Gonzalez, for felony harassment, unlawful imprisonment and second-degree malicious mischief, police said.
POLICE: TRIO BARGES INTO WOMAN’S HOME
• A 45-year-old Chehalis woman was hospitalized after a fracas last night at an apartment on the 200 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue. Officers called about 10:40 p.m. were told two heavy set females and a male arrived and beat up the woman, according to the Chehalis Police Department. They apparently were trying to retrieve some property that belonged to someone else, according to police. “I don’t know what property they were after but they just barged in and committed assault, which is burglary,” detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said. Arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail were Angela M. Johnson, 27, and Don K. Gonzales, 25, both from Chehalis and Saleana A. Valencia, 19, from Olympia, according to Wilson. Prosecutors declined to charge them and they were scheduled to be released today. Wilson said this morning he was still waiting to hear back from the hospital about the woman’s injuries.
UNPLANNED WARRANT SWEEP
• Centralia police ended up arresting three wanted men after a passenger of a vehicle they were watching at the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue in Centralia jumped out and ran upstairs into a motel room. It happened about 1 p.m. yesterday at Motel 6 and the individual they were originally looking for wasn’t found until later in Bucoda, according to the Centralia Police Department. Dana M. Johnson, 33, a homeless person, was arrested and booked for outstanding warrants and for an earlier investigation of residential burglary, according to police. Sgt. Kurt Reichert said there were three people left in the car, which an officer held at gunpoint and when officers knocked on the motel room, they arrested others there. It appears there were about a half dozen altogether, but Reichert wasn’t certain if the passenger was among those arrested. Booked into the Lewis County Jail were Stephen D. Pierce, 35 of Oakville, for an earlier investigation of burglary; Steven N. Romero, 20 of Centralia, for an earlier investigation of vehicle theft; and Forrest S. McMillian, 27 of Oakville, for several warrants, according to police.
SUSPECT SPEAKING IN TONGUES
• Chehalis police called about a skinny male who seemed to be speaking in tongues at about 12:45 p.m. yesterday arrested a 25-year-old homeless man who allegedly stole a backpack and also was seen on someone’s porch on Southwest Cascade Avenue attempting to take a bicycle which was chained up. Joshua E. Blankenship was arrested for third-degree theft and then released, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
STOLEN LICENSE PLATE
• Centralia police took a report about 5 p.m. yesterday regarding a license plate plate stolen off a vehicle at the 2000 block of Borst Avenue. The Washington state plate reads: B01598M, according to the Centralia Police Department.
ELDERLY PE ELL WOMAN VICTIMIZED BY BURGLAR
• Someone walked through an unlocked front door at a home in Pe Ell and stole a jewelry box from a bathroom in the master bedroom belonging to an 88-year-old woman. A deputy called to the 500 block of North Main Street learned the box contained about $3,000 worth of rings and necklaces, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. It happened between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
DRUGS
• A 38-year-old Chehalis resident wanted on a warrant was arrested after he was seen about 7:30 p.m. near Sixth Street and William Avenue; and a pipe was found with powder in it that field tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Kelly M. Davies was booked into the Lewis County Jail for the warrant and for possession of meth, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
PHONE SCAMMERS
• Centralia police took a report yesterday from the 200 block of Downing Road from an individual who said they got a phone call from someone saying their power bill was past due and if they didn’t pay $1,200, the electricity would be shut off. It was an attempted scam, according to the Centralia Police Department. The advice from police: If anyone calls you asking for money, you ought to first verify the information independently. “Don’t call them at the phone number they give you, look it up,” Sg. Kurt Reichert said.
• Chehalis police took a report yesterday afternoon from an individual on West Main Street about getting a phone call from someone posing as a representative of the Internal Revenue Service, who wanted money. Sgt. Gary Wilson said there’s not much local police can do in these types of situations, in part because sometimes the scammers are calling from a foreign country. “We just warn people, if the IRS calls you, it’s not the IRS,” he said. They contact people by mail, not over the telephone, he said.
CHEHALIS BUSINESS SETTLES VIOLATION OF HAZARDOUS MATERIAL LAW
• The owners of Del’s Feed and Farm Supply Store in Chehalis agreed to pay a fine of $134,400 for failing to report it was storing more than 10,000 pounds of propane at each of five locations, including Chehalis, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Emergency responders rely on this information for their safety and to help protect nearby residents during an emergency, such as a fire or an earthquake,” a spokesperson for the EPA said in a news release yesterday. Tractor Supply Company operates 18 Del’s Feed and Farm Supply Store in Washington and once made aware of the violations, quickly took steps to comply, according to EPA spokesperson Hanady Kader. Propane, sometimes referred to as liquefied petroleum gas, LP-gas, or LPG, is highly flammable. Under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, facilities that store threshold quantities of certain hazardous chemicals are required to submit an inventory of each of those chemicals to the State Emergency Response Commission, the Local Emergency Planning Committee and the local fire department.
WRECK
• Three people were hospitalized after a head-on crash last night in Winlock caused by an intoxicated underage driver that totaled two Honda Civics. A deputy responding about 9:20 p.m. to the 300 block of South Military Road concluded that the car carrying Enrique J. Hernandez, 20, and a 20-year-old passenger was traveling too fast and slid into the oncoming lane, running into a car driven by a 54-year-old man, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. All three are Winlock residents and were transported to Providence Centralia Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to the sheriff’s office. Hernandez was subsequently booked into the Lewis County Jail for driving under the influence, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. He was also cited for not carrying liability insurance, she said.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, misdemeanor assault; responses for alarm, dispute, shoplifting, broken vehicle window, collision on city street, someone taking a motor vehicle without permission, harassing phone calls, harassing texts, someone said they thought they witnessed a drug deal in a parking lot, a shoeless drunk man in a bar yelling and being rude, a drunken individual knocking on doors at an apartment building trying to get someone to put him up for the night … and more.