Christine Clarridge

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Patrick Cochran said he was simply trying to do right by his family and fulfill his dying mother's request when he took in his brother's three children.

But over the past two weeks -- since a handgun his 9-year-old nephew brought to his Bremerton elementary school discharged and seriously injured a classmate -- he's been subjected to scrutiny he never could have imagined.

SEATTLE — After Josh Powell locked himself in his home with his two young sons, the caseworker assigned to supervise the visitation pleaded for several minutes with a 911 dispatcher to send help, at one point saying, "I’m afraid for their lives," newly disclosed 911 tapes reveal.

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Charlie and Braden Powell did not want to see their father Sunday during a court-ordered visitation, the boys' grandparents Chuck and Judy Cox said Monday.

The grandparents aren't sure why the boys didn't want to see Josh Powell at his Graham, Wash., rental house. But the Coxes insisted the children go on the visitation because of the court order, which they did accompanied by a state-provided escort.

SEATTLE -- It was a tragedy waiting to happen unless they could stop it.

Washington State Patrol troopers tried their sirens, spotlights and even the PA system on their patrol cars, but nothing seemed to capture the attention of the driver who was careening north on Interstate 5 in the wrong direction early Wednesday morning.

SEATTLE -- Travis Pickett was coming out of the locker room with a couple of his football buddies before school on Monday morning when he heard screaming.

As at any school, the hallways at Snohomish High School are loud, so the 17-year-old senior didn't think much of it at first. But then he saw the screaming girl coming out of the restroom, blood pouring out of her arm and a look of shock on her face.

When he went into the bathroom, he saw one girl lying on the floor and another standing still near a stall. The girl on the ground was holding her neck, he said. The other girl, the suspect, "looked nervous, but she wasn't going anywhere. She was standing there, like, 'Yeah, I did that."'

SEATTLE -- The physician accused of killing his partner and their toddler son last week may have used as many as five knives to stab and slash the victims more than 100 times, according to King County prosecutors.