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REPORTER
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FRIDAY JANUARY 13/12
COMMENTARY | Renton’s schools deserve the community’s support [6]
New council member | Ed Prince was sworn in Monday as Renton’s newest City Council REPORTER NEWSLINE 425.255.3484 member [3]
Checking in | See how Renton, Lindbergh and Liberty swim teams are performing [12]
Murder trial begins in Alajawan’s killing BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
Curtis John Walker, right, sits with his attorneys, Jerry Stimmel, left, and Ann Mahony, center, during jury selection Wednesday. In the background is Judge Richard Eadie, standing. DEAN A. RADFORD, Renton Reporter
The defense team of the man charged with killing 12-year-old Alajawan Brown will try to prove that another man actually killed the Skyway boy in April 2010. The trial of Curtis John Walker of Kent got under way this week in King County Superior Court in downtown Seattle. He is charged with first-degree murder; since his arrest he has been jailed in Seattle on $5 million bail. A jury of 15 was seated Wednesday, including three alternates. It was the opening arguments on Wednesday that set the stage
for what the jury and the public would hear in the courtroom during the next three weeks or so. Alajawan died after he was shot in the back while walking home from a bus stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. He had just bought new football cleats at Walmart for a sport he loved. Gunfire had erupted at an apartment complex on South 129th Street. Walker drove off from that complex toward the 7-11 store on Martin Luther King Way. Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jessica Berliner in her opening arguments said that Walker got out of his wife’s Cadillac and shot twice at Alajawan,
hitting him once. Alajawan survived long enough to run to the 7-11 parking lot. “He decided to kill him,” said Berliner, in arguing Walker’s action was premeditated. Alajawan was dressed in blue, the gang color of the Crips, and his shooting was in retaliation for a shooting just a few minutes earlier, Berliner argued. The child was not a gang member. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Berliner said of Alajawan. But one of Walker’s attorney’s, Jerry Stimmel, argued that Alajawan was shot by Rodrigues Rabun, who was also at the apartment complex with Walker.
Rep. Inslee touts RTC’s role in job creation BY TRACEY COMPTON tcompton@rentonreporter.com
35 737s a month: It’s party time! If you ever want to cut through a dense crowd I highly recommend following a news camera man—as I did the other day at the Renton Boeing Plant. My media badge was swinging around my neck like a monkey as
the local camera man cut through a sea of Boeing employees like an ice breaker in the Bering Sea. I had intended on writing a column about kids and aviation. Like most people I had heard of the amazing things going on at Boe-
ing: the new accelerated production rate of building 35 737 each month (from 31.5) a feat that helped secure the recent deal to build the new 737 Max in Renton. [ more 737 page 8 ]
[ more INSLEE page 14 ]
206.949.1696 www.marciemaxwell.com Marcie Maxwell Associate Broker, Realtor & CRS
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Carolyn Ossorio
LIFE IN THE CITY
Beverly Wyse, 737 program vice president, whips up the crowd during a celebration Tuesday at the Renton 737 plant marking a major milestone: For the first time ever, the plant is producing 35 737s a month, a number that will grow over the next several years. CAROLYWWN OSSORIO, Renton Reporter
Gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee visited Renton Technical College’s campus last week and heard from students and instructors on the present state of education. Inslee, who represents the state’s 1st District in Congress, got a quick tour of selected campus programs and then sat down for a roundtable discussion with students, RTC Board of Trustees member Susan Palmer and RTC President Steve Hanson. Inslee’s opponent, Rob McKenna, visited the campus recently as well. “I thought they both did a great job – lots of good questions and good interaction with the students, very appreciative of the students and the work that they’re doing,” said Hanson.