Ganging Up Against Gangs Valley Residents Hold Vigil For Shooting Victims, Vow To Fight Back

A recent gang-related shooting in the Spokane Valley served as a solemn reminder to its residents that a community united is the only weapon against violence and crime.

With that as their battle cry, at least 150 people gathered in the parking lot of a Valley grocery store on Friday night to light candles and rally troops for SCOPE the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Efforts.

“It’s up to the community to stem the tide of violence that we’re having,” said Bill Langdon, president of the West Valley SCOPE.

“It’s unfortunate something like this had to happen, but some good can come of this,” Langdon said.

A Sunday night shooting sent three people to the hospital after the side of their car was sprayed with bullets as they drove through the Valley.

Torrey Lowery, 18, was shot in the chest. Heidi Hughes, 20, and Sabrina Lewin, 17, also were shot, one in the knee, hip and neck and the other in the leg, wrist and finger, police said.

Two of the suspects have ties to Hispanic gangs in Yakima, Moses Lake and the Tri-Cities, police said. The third, 17-year-old Jeremy Johnson, was charged Tuesday with five counts of first-degree assault.

“It could have been my children,” said a teary-eyed Shelley Wiemer, of SCOPE East Valley, whose four young children sat near the front of the crowd. “It’s got to stop.”

While King County’s violent crime rate dropped 14 percent last year, it jumped 19.2 percent in Spokane County, Undersheriff Mike Aubrey said.

“We live in a relatively safe community by most standards, but we live in a changing community as well,” Aubrey said.

Neighbors can battle crime by looking out for each other, said Ann Borgman, president of SCOPE East.

In the past year, four community policing substations have started in the Valley and four more are on the way.

“This is an effort on the part of the community to say, ‘We’re not going to tolerate this kind of activity in the Valley,”’ said Lt. Danny O’Dell, the liaison between the sheriff’s department and the community policing substations.

Danny Flambouras, 18, and Ericka Heller, 20, wore purple ribbons as a show of support for their three friends injured in the shooting last week.

“We want these gang-bangers to go back to where they came from,” Heller said. “We don’t want them here.”

Aubrey cautioned the young people to not spark more confrontation but call the police instead.

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