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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Drive-By Shooting Suspect Apprehended After Chase

A Spokane man suspected of wounding a California resident in a drive-by shooting earlier this month was arrested after leading police on a high-speed chase.

Police caught Samuel D. Martin, 33, about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in north Spokane.

Martin was charged Monday with one count of first-degree assault and is being held in jail in lieu of $150,000 bond. He is accused of firing four shots at 19-year-old Mwando Newsom on April 3, hitting him once in the thigh.

Martin also was charged with car theft, attempting to elude a police officer and several drug counts stemming from Saturday’s chase.

The shooting occurred about 6:15 a.m. outside an apartment building in the 1300 block of North Howard, a few blocks from the Spokane Arena.

Witnesses said Newsom, who was visiting Spokane from Cerritos, Calif., and Martin got into a fistfight a few hours before the shooting. Martin received a large cut on his head in the fight, police said.

Someone yelled “You’re dead” at the shooting victim as Martin and several associates left the scene in a Pontiac Phoenix.

Martin and another person returned several hours later, police said. Martin shot Newsom when the man opened the door of the apartment where he was staying, investigators said.

No one else was hurt in the barrage.

A few days after the incident, witnesses told police Martin, who has no felony record in Spokane County, was the shooter.

But police didn’t track him down until Saturday when officers were dispatched to a house on West College to investigate a car theft.

When they arrived, Martin sped away in a stolen car, hitting speeds of 70 mph in a 30-mph zone, police said. He also ran stop signs and traffic lights and drove on the wrong side of the road during the pursuit, police said.

, DataTimes