Briefly

Suspect in assault case turns himself in

A man accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend turned himself in to police on Thursday, Spokane police reported.

Robert L. Greenamyer, 21, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on charges of second-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment. Bond was set at $100,000.

The victim told police that she and Greenamyer were arguing on Tuesday when Greenamyer grabbed her in the groin area. Greenamyer twisted his hand and used enough force to tear her skin, said police spokesman Dick Cottam.

After the assault, Greenamyer – who is a registered sex offender – ran from the scene, police said. The victim was injured but not hospitalized.

Suspect recaptured after escape from police

A woman taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center after she was arrested escaped from police custody Friday evening, Spokane Valley police said.

However, police were able to nab her again a short time after her escape.

The woman, Nannette June Zyskowski, 29, was arrested Friday at East Valley Middle School after she showed up to a school sporting event and demanded custody of her 13-year-old child, said police spokesman Dave Reagan in a press release.

The 13-year-old was at the event with a grandmother.

Zyskowski, who reportedly was intoxicated, body-slammed the grandmother, Reagan said. A coach took the 13-year-old into the school.

Zyskowski eventually left the school, but a witness followed the woman and called police, Reagan said. An officer stopped Zyskowski and arrested her on a charge of fourth-degree domestic violence assault.

Police drove Zyskowski to Sacred Heart to check her sobriety and to check an injured wrist. Police allowed her to use a restroom and she slipped away unnoticed, Reagan said.

Spokane and Spokane Valley police flooded the area, and she was located about 9:45 p.m. at Ninth Avenue and Rockwood Boulevard, Reagan said.

Skateboarder attacked in Coeur d’Alene

A male skateboarder was stabbed Wednesday evening in a Coeur d’Alene parking lot, police reported.

The victim told police that a person approached him from behind while he was skateboarding at the parking lot of Advanced Input Devices, 600 Wilbur. The attacker demanded money, and the victim suffered two minor cuts from a knife during a struggle with the attacker, Coeur d’Alene Police said.

The victim was taken to Kootenai Medical Center by private vehicle, police said.

The suspect is described as 6 feet tall and 180 pounds. The attacker wore a black ski mask, baggy black pants, black zippered sweat shirt and skater shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Coeur d’Alene police at 769-2320 or the tip line at 769-2296.

Identity of body found in CdA unknown

Police in Coeur d’Alene are still trying to determine the identity of a man who was found dead, apparently of natural causes, near railroad tracks west of downtown last Saturday. The body was found along a dirt access road between busy Northwest Boulevard and the Spokane River west of the North Idaho College campus.

The sheltered, overgrown area is often the site of transient camps, and the man found dead is believed to have been a transient. An autopsy revealed he died of a pulmonary embolism, Lt. Don Jiran of the Coeur d’Alene Police said Friday.

Jiran said transients in the area told police the man kept to himself and nobody nearby even knew him by a nickname.

“One of the transients we talked to said almost everybody else has moved on already. There were three left, the deceased, himself and one other,” Jiran said. “They said the deceased man stayed by himself and wasn’t really sociable.”

The man had been in the area about a month, Jiran said, but had no identification on his body or among his possessions.

Police have sent his fingerprints to the state crime lab in Boise to see if his identity can be determined through a records check.

Jiran said the man left behind intensive writings on various topics, written on scraps of paper. “Some of the stuff was perfectly clear and others were wandering, rambling; like he was writing in a psychotic state.”

John Davis, helped develop polypropylene, dies

Edmonds, Wash. John Frederick Davis, a longtime Shell Oil Co. chemical engineer who helped develop the lightweight plastic polypropylene, is dead at 75.

Davis died Nov. 4 after a long decline caused by dementia, relatives said.

Born in Wakefield, R.I., he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a degree in chemical engineering, attended graduate school at Yale University and spent 33 years at Shell, retiring in 1986 as a senior process engineer.

Davis played a key role on a team that worked to refine and develop uses for polypropylene, a polymer with uses ranging from dishwasher-safe plastic food containers to fiber for the indoor-outdoor carpeting found at swimming pools and miniature golf courses.

After retiring Davis moved from Houston to this Seattle suburb, spending much of his time as a volunteer in the literacy program at Everett Community College and in the pharmacy at Stevens Memorial Hospital.

Survivors include his wife of 47 years, Carol; a son, the Rev. John Davis, a Lutheran minister in Giddings, Texas; and daughters Martha Tazioli of Seattle and Andrea Mansfield of Fremont, Calif..