In brief: Police seek Moses Lake’s help in finding drive-by killer

MOSES LAKE – Police are asking Moses Lake residents to check home surveillance cameras for video of a car that carried a gunman in a Halloween drive-by killing.

Jose M. Pichardo, 22, of Moses Lake, was killed while driving east on Valley Road near Paxson Drive around 4:15 p.m., a news release from the Moses Lake Police Department said.

The shots were fired from another vehicle, also traveling east on Valley. Pichardo’s 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass crashed into a home on the corner of Paxson and Valley after he was shot, the release said. No one in the home was injured.

Moses Lake police detectives are asking for anyone with video systems that record out to the roadway in the Paxson Drive and Knolls Vista areas to check these systems for speeding or suspicious vehicles around the time of the homicide.

Urban Land Institute hosts real estate event

The Urban Land Institute’s Idaho and Northwest chapters will hold a real estate outlook event at 8 a.m. today in Spokane Valley.

Real Estate Trends 2015 will include a presentation of the annual report and a panel discussion featuring James Rivard of SRM Development; Chris Bell of NAI Black Commercial Real Estate; Cliff Mort of Mort Construction and Monogram Homes; and Greg Conley, commercial real estate division manager at US Bank. The panel moderator is Denny Davis of Witherspoon Kelley.

The event will be held at the Mirabeau Park Hotel, 1100 N. Sullivan Road. For more information, visit idaho.uli.org/event/real-estate-trends-2015-inland-northwest.

7-year-old girl hit by car on Halloween dies

VANCOUVER, Wash. – A 7-year-old girl who was hit by a car while trick-or-treating on Halloween in Vancouver has died.

The staff at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland said Sunday that Cadence Boyer had died.

The Columbian reported she was walking with her mother and others when they were hit by a car that went onto a sidewalk.

The mother, 32-year-old Annie Arnold, was listed in fair condition at Legacy.

A 30-year-old woman, Chelina Alsten, and a 6-year-old girl also were critically injured. Alsten remained in critical condition Sunday at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver.

Police suspect the driver was speeding and intoxicated. He was arrested for investigation of vehicular assault.

Montana pair accused of kidnapping uncle, 84

WILLISTON, N.D. – A Montana pair has been charged with kidnapping their mentally impaired 84-year-old uncle from North Dakota’s oil patch after authorities became concerned that they might be exploiting him.

Authorities began looking for Robert Gross last week after deputies and an agent visited his East Fairview, North Dakota, home and found he was missing.

A court affidavit says Gross’ family members described him as having “the mental capacity of a 12-year-old boy.” This played a role in getting Gross to sign over oil well rights to his niece Sandra Potter, who was also his caregiver, and loan her and her family more than $20,000, the affidavit said.

Authorities allege Potter kept Gross living in a trailer with no running water, only canned chili for food, broken, moldy refrigerators and dog feces throughout the residence.

Potter was arrested Friday in her Worden, Montana, home. That same night, Thomas Potter was arrested near Yuma, Arizona. Gross was with him.

McKenzie County sheriff’s Detective Mike Schmitz said authorities believe the Potters are siblings. Sandra Potter is in her mid-60s and Thomas Potter is in his mid-50s.

Schmitz said authorities believe the pair was holding Gross in the Billings area before Thomas Potter took him to Arizona.

In a statement, the McKenzie County Sheriff’s Office said Gross is in Yuma receiving medical care at a hospital.

REDMOND, Wash. – A plastic soda bottle exploded early Monday in a Redmond elementary school parking lot, injuring a school bus driver, officials said.

There were only about 25 to 30 students at Emily Dickinson Elementary School when the blast happened at about 7:30 a.m., said Kathryn Reith, a Lake Washington School District spokeswoman. Those students were well away from the blast area, she said.

Two buses were in the parking lot.

One driver was walking toward the other bus when the bottle bomb went off, Reith said. The driver appeared to suffer minor wounds from plastic shrapnel and was taken to a hospital.

King County sheriff’s Sgt. DB Gates said the device was an acid bomb, commonly made by juveniles with household chemicals.

A second person was taken to a hospital as a precaution for exposure to chemicals from the 2-liter bottle, Gates said.

The elementary school was closed for the day.