News-Times Whidbey
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2012 | Vol. 113, No. 14 | www.whidbeynewstimes.com | 75¢
Inside
Police pursue armed robber
County’s $5 land tax tossed by court
By JUSTIN BURNETT
By JESSIE STENSLAND
Gun aimed at store clerk Staff reporter
As of Friday morning, the man who robbed a convenience store in Oak Harbor this week was still on the loose. Lt. Tim Sterkel of the Oak Harbor Police Department confirmed that detectives received and followed up on several tips but that no arrests have been made. Anyone with any information is urged to contact police. The man being sought is described as a light-skinned black male, about five-foot, nine-inches tall, and estimated to be in his 20s. He left the store wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans with distinct white stitching near the back pockets and large white-rimmed sunglasses. According to Sterkel, the man should be considered armed and dangerous. If spotted, the public should not attempt contact but call 911. The robbery happened shortly before 9 a.m. at DK Market along Highway 20. Store clerk Scott Lamb
said the man approached the counter with a Monster brand energy drink and asked for cigarettes. Lamb turned away for a moment to grab a carton and when he turned back, the man had a gun. “He pointed it at my face and told me he was going to kill me unless I got the register open,” Lamb said. As he fumbled with the buttons, Lamb said the robber got impatient and began counting. Once he finally got the drawer open, the man grabbed the cash, the cigarettes, the Monster energy drink and bolted out the door. He was last seen running across Highway 20 and then behind Burger King. The area was soon buzzing with police and an exhaustive search ensued that ranged from Dillard’s Addition to Flintstone Park on Bayshore Drive. “We surrounded the whole area,” Sterkel said. However, the man appears to have made a clean getaway. Sterkel said he couldn’t be sure, but it’s believed he got into a car and drove away before police arrived and began their search. Detective Ron Hofkamp has been assigned the case and anyone with See robber, A4
Staff reporter
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor Police Detective Tony Slowik prepares to peer over a fence looking for a man who robbed DK Market.
This image from a DK Market camera shows the man who robbed the store Wednesday.
A Supreme Court ruling filed Thursday likely means that a special $5-per-parcel assessment to fund the Whidbey Island and Snohomish County conservation districts violates state law. In response, the Board of Island County Commissioners is holding a special session at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21 to consider whether to schedule a public hearing to repeal the 2009 ordinance that imposed the special assessment. Among the likely topics of conversation is whether the county will have to refund the assessments, a total of about $470,000, for the two years they were collected. Under an interlocal agreement between the conservation districts and the county, the districts are financially responsible if refunds have to be given, according to county Budget Director Elaine Marlow. Yet Island County Treasurer Ana Maria Nunez said Friday that, See tax, A4
As girl recovers, man says he was attacked by same dog By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
A second person has come forward to say he was attacked by the same pit bull that was one of three dogs to attack an Oak Harbor girl last week. The 12-year-old girl attacked by three pit bulls Feb. 5 is in good spirits as she recovers from her injuries, according to her father. “It was a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Merl Naumowicz, an active duty member of the Navy. Naumowicz is stationed in Nebraska, but took emergency medical leave and flew to Whidbey after learning about the attack. His daughter called him from the hospital and talked to him before she was sedated. Naumowicz said her right hand and forearm were most severely injured since she was using it to stop the dogs from biting her face. He said the doctors at first didn’t know if they would be able to save her thumb because of all the damage; she
still doesn’t have feeling in her thumb. In addition, the dogs bit the girl on her other hand and her feet. She sustained serious scratch marks on her chest and on her lip, according to her father. Naumowicz said nobody has any idea why the dogs attacked her, though he’s heard unconfirmed reports they bit people on three previous occasions that weren’t reported to police. He said his daughter has been at the home where it occurred before and the dogs know her. According to Naumowicz, his 19-year-old daughter drove his younger daughter to an apartment on Midway Boulevard to pick up a vacuum. He said a child inside the apartment opened the door and let the dogs out; all three of the dogs attacked the girl at the same time. Naumowicz was told that the owner promised to have the dogs euthanized. Meanwhile, Oak Harbor resident Carlos Smith saw the story about the girl’s plight and said something similar happened to him last November
when he visited the same apartment. “I got attacked by the same dog,” he said, referring to the male dog named Tank. He said he went to the apartment to visit the boyfriend of the woman living there, who was a friend of his. “I wasn’t there two seconds before I was attacked,” he said. Two of the dogs were in a cage, he said, but Tank came running toward him from a back room and bit into his hand. “I never called the cops, I went right to the hospital,” Smith said. “The guy was crying, ‘Don’t call the cops on me.’” Smith said a doctor put 13 stitches in his hand, but he still suffers from nerve damage and he’s still paying off the $4,000 hospital bill. He lost his job because he can’t extend two of his fingers without pulling on them. After reading about the attack on the girl, Smith decided it was time to act. “I’m going to file a lawsuit,” he said.
Tank, a pit bull involved in the attack of a girl last week, is also accused of attacking a man in November.