S.W.A.T. Team Responds To Armed Suicide Threat

A man who threatened to commit suicide at an Indian Trail neighborhood home brought out members of the S.W.A.T. team Friday afternoon for nearly three hours.

The man called the police department and threatened to kill himself, said police spokesman Dick Cottam.

“The fact that he was armed and threatening created a situation where the S.W.A.T. team had to seal off the area so that no one else would get hurt,” Cottam said.

The man was not arrested because he did not break the law, Cottam said.

Woodridge Elementary School officials were told to keep kids inside the building and neighbors along the 9500 block of North Loganberry Court were told to stay indoors as well.

Cottam said the man, who was intoxicated, has a history of suicide threats. He eventually left the house and was handcuffed and taken away. He was placed under observation before being released.

A nearby resident said she saw someone in the house on Sunday night. She wasn’t sure if it was the same man who issued the suicide threat. She said she is concerned for her safety as well as her neighbors.

“There are a lot of children all around here and I’m very concerned about that,” said the woman, who asked to remain unidentified.

The woman said she was pleased with police response but frustrated she couldn’t get information from them. She said she received a phone call from a neighbor who asked: “Who is the man in black standing on your deck with a rifle?”

When the unidentified woman opened the door, all the S.W.A.T. team member would tell her was to go back inside her home and stay in the basement.

She described the suicidal man as a recluse. She said he moved into the neighborhood late last year.

Neighbors said a moving truck was at the residence on Tuesday.

Burglar sniffed out

A burglar broke into the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 51 on Monday morning but a police K-9 found a suspect.

Police responded to an alarm of someone in the building at 300 W. Mission at 2:20 a.m. on Monday.

An officer spotted the suspect running from the area, and the K-9 tracked the man, who was hiding face down behind a barrier at a nearby building, said police spokesman Dick Cottam.

Police arrested Robert L. Talley, 28, who gave his address as 2618 E. Joseph, he said.

Talley was booked into jail on a burglary charge. He has 69 convictions including possession of stolen property, burglary, theft, assault and drugs.

Police looking for carjackers

A woman told Spokane police she and two friends were riding in a car together early Friday morning and, after they stopped to pick up two friends of one of the passengers, the two robbed the passengers and stole the car.

The woman, 37, told police she and her friends were riding in the Garland area when they stopped for the two young men, whom she didn’t know. The five rode to Walton and Mayfair where one of the two men produced a handgun and the other displayed a rifle, Cottam said.

They robbed the passengers of their money, forced them from the car and left in the vehicle.

Police said the owner of the car disappeared and hasn’t reported the car stolen. Police say the woman who reported the carjacking was intoxicated and unable to provide much information on the suspects, he said.

They were described only as Native American males, both 19 or 20. One was skinny with a tattoo on his neck. The car was described only as a green, four-door sedan.

, DataTimes