Kansas

Derby Marine dies in Iraq

A 19-year-old Marine from Derby has died of noncombat wounds in Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

Pfc. Ryan R. Cox, who was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division out of the California-based Air-Ground Combat Center, died Sunday near Najaf, Iraq.

Cox’s family told television station KWCH in Wichita they learned about Cox’s death Monday morning but received few details from the military.

The Defense Department said it was investigating what it called a “noncombat weapon discharge.”

Ohio

Kansas couple killed in small plane’s crash

A small, two-engine plane crashed in a gravel pit Monday afternoon, killing the pilot and the only passenger, the State Highway Patrol said.

Woodrow E. Williams, 67, and his wife, Evelyn M. Williams, 65, both of Leawood, Kan., died in the crash, State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Escola said.

The 1966 Piper PA-30 crashed into the property of State Route 416 Sand and Gravel near New Philadelphia in Tuscarawas County 70 miles south of Cleveland. The plane took off somewhere in Missouri and was headed to Butler, Pa., Escola said.

A witness told the patrol that the plane was headed west at a low altitude when it banked sharply to the left, hit a cliff with its wing and went upside down into the pit.

The victims were found dead inside the wreckage, Escola said.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash. Escola said the weather was ideal for flying with temperatures in the 70s.

The patrol is trying to determine whether a radio communication received at an airport in Columbus came from the plane.

Phoenix

Catholic bishop arrested in fatal hit-and-run

The Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix was arrested Monday in a deadly hit-and-run accident after police traced a license plate number to his car and found the windshield caved in.

Bishop Thomas O’Brien, 67, was booked on a charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Bond was set at $45,000.

Police said in court documents that O’Brien told them he thought he had hit a dog or a cat or that someone had thrown a rock at his car.

In the hit-and-run case Saturday night, 43-year-old Jim Reed died after he was struck by two cars while walking across a street in the middle of the block about three miles from the bishop’s home. Both cars drove off.