Welcome-home rally held at Moore Furniture

EPHRATA - A Grant County Sheriff's deputy returned home over the weekend to a parking lot full of supporters after recovering from a gunshot wound for the past month at a Seattle hospital.

Earl Romig, 26, arrived Saturday at the Grant County International Airport with his wife Tami and father-in-law Dave Canfield, Canfield said Monday.

Tami Romig was unavailable by cellphone Monday. She and Romig were married at Harborview earlier this month.

After arriving in Moses Lake Saturday, the family attended a short welcome home rally at the parking lot of Moore Furniture Inc. in Ephrata. The parking lot was full of people, Canfield said.

Earl Romig was released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle Feb. 9 only to return to the hospital one day later with an infection.

He is being treated for a bacterial infection at home and will receive intravenous antibiotics for the next four weeks, according to the family's Web site.

The family plans on adding new updates to the site, Canfield said.

Romig was injured during an off-duty incident Jan. 10 while coyote hunting near Soap Lake.

A Moses Lake hunter arrested in the shooting reportedly told investigators he fired at what he believed was a coyote.

The hunter, Robbie Joe Marcher, 38, pleaded innocent in Grant County Superior Court to third-degree assault, failure to summon assistance and illegal possession of a firearm.