Patriot Bremerton
FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2012 | Vol. 14, No. 6 www.bremertonpatriot.com | 50¢
Slain Trooper remembered
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Police hear Union Hill concerns
Residents seek answers and murder investigation details, police not forthcoming
By Greg Skinner gskinner@soundpublishing.com
BRETT CIHON/STAFF PHOTO
Hundreds of people held candles Monday evening at a vigil honoring Washington State Trooper Tony Radulescu outside the Christian Life Center in Port Orchard. Read more about the tragic loss to the community on page 6.
Crowd gathers to mourn Huge crowd mourns Trooper Radulescu at candlelight vigil By BRETT CIHON Port Orchard Independent Reporter
Mourners gathered outside the Christian Life Center in Port Orchard for a candlelight vigil Monday evening honoring slain Washington State Patrol Trooper Tony Radulescu.
Family members of Radulescu, holding candles and carrying tissues, spoke at the gathering. “This so unspeakably hard for the family,” said Erick Radulescu, the trooper’s son. “He was the glue that held the Radulescus together.” Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste and Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer, who was once Radulescu’s WSP supervisor, also spoke at the gathering, which drew close to 1,000 people. Both shared memories of Radulescu, and agreed he was woven from a special cloth.
“He was the best of the best,” Boyer said. He recalled the Romanian-born Radulescu’s irrepressible good nature. “Tony was always smiling,” Boyer said. “Tony couldn’t help himself; he couldn’t not smile.” Radulescu was shot in the head by Joshua Blake during a traffic stop on State Route 16 near Gorst in the early morning hours of Feb. 23. A memorial service was held at the Showare Center in Kent at 1 p.m. Thursday.
The difference between a person of interest and suspect lies within the depth of probable cause. As of now, the Bremerton police don’t have it. Police have interviewed a “person of interest” in the city’s dual murder investigation, but they have no probable cause to make an arrest or gain a search warrant. As citizens began to take down posters urging a call to police if the face printed there were to jog the viewers’ memory related to the murders, authorities say the sketch remains relevant. About 150 neighbors crowded into the basement of Memorial Lutheran Church on Veneta Avenue last Thursday to hear from police and share personal concerns over apple juice and homemade sweets. Sponsored by 5th District Bremerton Councilmember Greg Wheeler and 6th District Councilmember Faye Flemester, the police took questions following a short safety presentation. The evening turned into neighborhood therapy session as residents asked questions revealing a desire to be told if they should be afraid or not. “Is the person of interest under surveillance?” Collectively, residents wanted to know where the person of interest lives and what specifically connected the Burke and Brannon murders with the third assault. Should residents call 9-1-1 and should the police sketch continue to
be circulated? Other questions were as basic as one woman wanting to know if she could walk her dogs or another’s desire to know why the Union Hill neighborhood was “targeted.” “Did they know they were being followed?” asked one woman. “If something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t,” Bremerton Police Lt. Pete Fisher said before noting that the man who survived the attack was distracted at the time. “We do believe they were being followed,” he said. Citing a need to protect the investigation, police did not answer most of the questions asked. Sarah Burke, a 19-yearold student, was murdered on the street last May and Melody Brannon was murdered on Feb. 3 somewhere on the block of 1300 High Avenue. With nine months between, the murders are now suspected to be connected by an assault on Burwell Street in which a man survived with the help of an unknown passer by. Whether police believe the young man in the image that they’ve been circulating murdered Burke and Brannon, they won’t say. What Fisher did say is that the young man questioned by authorities remains at the “person of interest” level of the investigation. That person could be a witness rather than a suspect, Fisher said. Bremerton Police believe that they have interviewed the person that they believe to be the person of interest in the police artists sketch, See CONCERNS, A7