Spokane7
35°
Item: Deputy: One shot fired in death: He saw Creach with gun, then had ‘verbal exchange’/Thomas Clouse, SR
More Info: The news release offered no explanation of what was said or by whom, or why Hirzel felt the need to pull the trigger, killing the 74-year-old pastor in the parking lot of his nursery business at 14208 E. Fourth Ave. in Spokane Valley. Creach’s daughter, Serena Creach Leonard, said she read the statement released Friday and it left the family with many unanswered questions. “We have no more answers from that press release really than we had the day after,” Leonard said. “We still feel badly for Deputy Hirzel, but we need the sheriff’s department to communicate to us as a family to let us know what happened that night. Whatever it is, we want the truth.”
Question: Does the family of the late Pastor Creach have the right to know what happened the night Deputy Hirzel shot the minister to death?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
999 W. Riverside, Spokane, WA 99201
P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210
Main switchboard: (509) 459-5000 • (800) 338-8801
Newsroom: (509) 459-5400 • (800) 789-0029
Customer service: (800) 338-8801
© Copyright 2012, The Spokesman-Review
Terms of use • Privacy policy • Copyright policy
Find DFO on Facebook
DFO on Twitter
Charlie on September 04 at 7:21 a.m.
The Creach family has every right to know exactly what transpired that night but the law enforcement people are stonewalling. Why would they stonewall you ask, to cover their butts in what may be an unjustified shooting. A lot of mistakes were made by Ozzie”s boy and he needs to man up and take responsibility. Remember Otto Zehm!
jreighley on September 04 at 6:00 p.m.
I thought they where supposed to be briefed next week…
The police are sorting through the facts to determine if anything would harm the case if it where released to the public — Once the decision is made, they will release what they are going to release to the Creaches, then to the public..
At least that is what I had heard.. I would think the Spokesman Review would have heard the same thing I did, so this question seems a bit out of line..
sue on September 04 at 6:55 p.m.
This is such a sad story. It could well be that the officer felt justified in some way, felt threatened by someone with a gun. It seemed like the pastor’s family was very sympathetic to the idea this could’ve been a tragic accident. What has transpired in the last 2 weeks though makes me question that department again. Could you go on vacation after accidentally killing an innocent man? I’m sure the pastor felt safer with the gun, too, but it was probably the gun that caused his death. The officer should’ve been questioned immediately; the excuse that he felt coerced is ridiculous. This is a textbook example of how to create suspicion 7animosity towards our law enforcement. Officers make mistakes, and it seems likely that this one did too. The family deserved better communication at the very least.
Stickman on September 05 at 4:44 p.m.
Of course they do. But coming out of your house and waving a firearm is not a good way to find out what’s going on. I doubt he would have been killed without waving a gun. Give up on the guns.
hmoffsuite on September 05 at 5:02 p.m.
I would think that this whole thing could have been easily avoided had the Sheriff’s dept made a simple phone call to Creach, advising him that they were placing an unmarked car in his lot to look for the reported bad guys. A simple phone call. A heads up. I think this borders on negligence on the part of the sheriff.