A young girl narrowly avoided gunfire late Saturday after an 18-year-old man fired a gun into her apartment, police say.

The girl's mother, Elizabeth Harper, told police she and her friend, Bryan Chavez, were at the home on East Pine Ridge Court in north Spokane when she heard a gunshot about 9:29 p.m. and a stranger opened her unlocked door and stepped inside, according to the Spokane Police Department.

She repeatedly yelled for the man, identified by police as Alexander B. Pardue, to exit as he demanded to be let in "with a panicked look on his face," police said in court documents.

Pardue left when Chavez emerged from a backroom, police say. Harper told officers she heard one of her daughter's crying and found a bullet hole just above her bed from a gunshot that traveled through the apartment.

A witness said he heard a gunshot just before he saw Pardue running through the parking lot holding a black handgun, police say.

Pardue's girlfriend, Stephanie Diluzio, told police an unknown man with a knife hit Pardue in the face with a baseball bat, and Pardue chased him and fired a shot. Pardue told police he'd fired his 9 mm handgun at the assailant "after yelling at him to stop," documents say.

Pardue was booked into jail on  a first-degree burglary charge. He could face more charges.

---

---