By Sara Loken
Tue, 05/02/2006
Man sets house on fire,
then shoots self in head
A 54-year-old man was found shot inside a burning house in Des Moines on April 26.
His brother arrived at the house in the 900 block of South 194th Street shortly before 9 a.m., saw the house burning and called the fire department.
The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he died from what a medical examiner said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
King County Fire Investigators ruled the fire was intentionally set.
King County crime spree
ends with SeaTac arrest
A man suspected of a string of crimes in North King County was arrested in SeaTac the night of April 26.
Erik Kirkman, 27 years old, was spotted driving a car with plates that did not match. A SeaTac police officer tried to stop him, but Kirkman drove away. The officer rammed the car to stop it.
Kirkman then fled on foot, was stunned with a taser, but was able to climb over a fence and continue running. With the help of a police dog and the King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, he was located and taken into custody.
He is suspected of breaking into a home in Kenmore around 9:30 a.m. on April 23 and stealing multiple items with the family in the home.
Kirkman is also suspected of trying to steal a car, then breaking into another home in Edmonds and stealing a mini-van. He then allegedly outran a Washington state trooper after running a red light and hitting a car with a woman inside.
After that crash, he allegedly broke into another home, called a cab from the house and used the cab as a getaway car.
Police used a videotape in the cab to identify the suspect.
Taser needed to arrest
aggressive shoplifter
A 31-year-old man was tased three times by Des Moines police officers before being taken into custody on April 17.
At 3:18 a.m., officers responded to a report of a shoplifting at a 7-Eleven in the 2900 block of Kent-Des Moines Road.
Responding officers determined the suspect, who didn’t respond to their verbal commands, was drunk.
After he was tased once, he walked towards the officers in an attempt to assault them. He was tased two more times before he finally submitted and was handcuffed.
Ride given, car stolen
On April 15 around 2:20 a.m., a man stopped at the 76 gas station in the 23800 block of Pacific Highway South to buy beer when a woman that he knew asked him for a ride to her boyfriend’s house a few blocks away.
He drove her to the house, picked up the boyfriend and drove them both back to the gas station. The boyfriend, identified as “Bodine,” asked to go to another location but the man told him this was the last stop.
Bodine allegedly told the driver not to reach for his keys and pulled something from his waist that looked like the barrel of a gun.
The victim told Bodine, “Do what you gotta do,” and got out of his car. He watched the suspect and the girlfriend pull out and go west on South 240th Street.
The car was found by the victim’s friend two days later, undamaged, in the 21800 block of 30th Avenue South in Des Moines. No weapons or contraband were found inside.
A Des Moines police officer driving by the car saw a man in the driver’s seat get out and walk away from the car. When the man denied stealing the car, the officer asked the victim if he looked liked Bodine. The victim said no.
The man in the car told the officer it is common knowledge that crack users in the area drop off stolen cars and other crack users pick up these cars to drive.