Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, May 25, 2012
www.issaquahreporter.com
Student power Eastlake’s 7th annual Relay For Life raises record $125,000 for cancer research
Above, Officer Laura Asbell gives testimony at a formal police inquest May 23. Below, Offficer Brian Horn explains to a jury the extra armor he put on before engaging the Issaquah shooter in September.
Kira Hanson wasn’t sure what was going on with her body, but she knew it wasn’t good. In December of 2010, her skin began to itch incessantly. Then came the random pain and discomfort in her chest. Trip after trip to different doctors resulted in no answers, and a ton of frustration. “I just kept getting worse and the doctors just kept saying, ‘Oh, you have anxiety, you have allergies, you have this and that,’” the Eastlake High School junior said. Finally, in August 2011 — nearly eight months after her first symptoms — Hanson received a definite answer from a specialist. To her relief and dismay, she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma — a form of cancer that starts in the white blood cells and attacks the body’s lymph nodes. “It was like the most
UNDER FIRE
Police inquest testimony reveals how deep a threat Issaquah shooter was to public BY CELESTE GRACEY CGRACEY@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
W
hen track coach Mike Smith sprinted toward the man, who appeared to be trying to break into a driver’s ed car, he thought it was a mischievous teen. A hundred feet closer, the bar in the man’s hands turned out to be one of two guns. The man snapped “back off.” Smith left to call police, but he couldn’t let it go.
He followed the man to the playground at Clark Elementary School. A 100 yards seemed a safe distance, until the man unloaded a round at him. Minutes later police would kill the man, Ronald W. Ficker, in a shootout. This week, testimony from a formal inquest held by King County prosecutors revealed how deep a threat Ficker posed to the public as he roamed downtown Issaquah armed with over 900 bullets. Reports also reveal how
“I felt if were unable to stop him, he would kill other people.”
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– Officer Laura Asbell deeply Ficker was disturbed in the weeks leading up to his death Sept. 24. Less than a minute after Ficker shot at Smith, Issaquah Police Officer Laura Asbell, carrying an automatic rifle, ran up behind Smith and told him to leave. She knew Ficker had shot his rifle once outside the Julius Boehm Pool and once somewhere near the Rainier Trail. There also were reports of Ficker pointing the guns menacingly at passersby.
As Asbell took position behind a portable classroom, Ficker found a new target. King SEE INQUEST, 9 Home of the Cowboy Rib Steak & Baseball Top Sirlion • Rib Roast • Steaks For The Grill 20+ Varieties of Fresh Sausages Our own Beef Jerky, Turkey Jerky, Pepperoni & Chicken Pepperoni
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CELESTE GRACEY, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
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