Public asked for leads in

attempted store robbery

October 28-A knife-wielding man attempted to rob the Walgreen's Drug Store at Southwest 148th Street and Ambaum Boulevard Southwest.

Last week the King County Sheriff's Office turned to the public for help in locating the would-be thief.

Burien police said a man entered the store, approached the checkout counter and showed the clerk a 12-inch butcher knife while demanding money from the till.

When the 54-year-old female clerk tried to walk away, the man went around the counter, grabbed her by the shoulder and held the knife to her back. She was unable to free herself, but the man fled when she screamed.

The man is described as a black male, 18 to 21 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a bulking jacket with the hood over his head and light blue jeans.

Anyone with information about the attempted robbery is asked to call the King County Sheriff's Office at 206-296-3311 or 9-1-1.

North Highline

Man's bottom lip bitten off

while kissing ex-girlfriend

November 5-A White Center woman allegedly bit off the bottom lip of a man she had been kissing.

Laura Cutler, 44, later was charged in King County Superior Court with second-degree domestic-violence assault.

She is being held in the King County Jail.

According to King County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart, Cutler and the 49-year-old man, who she once had dated, were sitting on her bed kissing when she allegedly bit off most of his bottom lip and spit it out.

The man's lip was found after the incident, but doctors at Highline Medical Center in Burien were unable to reattach it-leaving him permanently disfigured.

Urquhart said deputies were called to the White Center house, where the man and woman have lived with two other roommates, at about 11:30 p.m.

The home in the 10400 block of 19th Avenue Southwest in White Center is an unofficial "clean and sober" residence for recovering addicts, Urquhart added.

When deputies arrived, the victim was sitting on the front steps. He told them, "The b***h bit my lip off!"

Deputies then noticed most of his lower lip was missing.

Urquhart said an investigation revealed the man and his assailant were now "just friends," but had ended up kissing when the attacked occurred.

According to the victim, they kissed several times, when suddenly, without provocation or warning, she bit off his lip and then "spit it out."

Cutler was found in the house and taken into custody after allegedly trying to assault one of the arresting deputies with a pillow. She reportedly appeared to have been drinking.

Compiled by Ralph Nichols