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

Series of calls leads to suspect in burglaries

Thomas Clouse Staff writer

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies scrambled Wednesday morning to catch up to a string of burglary reports on the West Plains that included a homeowner shooting at an intruder.

The day ended peacefully hours later, with a standoff that resulted in two arrests at the Hide Away Mobile Home Park at Thorpe and Cheatham roads, just south of Interstate 90 and Spokane International Airport.

Deputies eventually arrested 32-year-old Lashonda Fuchs-Baker, who also uses the name Lashonda Renee Baker, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said. She was booked into jail on charges of residential burglary and one count of attempted residential burglary.

The string of events began at 9:30 a.m. when a woman in the 7300 block of South Grove Road called 911 and said someone first knocked on her front door and then walked to the back yard and started throwing rocks at her house. The caller did not confront the person, who left driving south on Grove, Reagan said.

Deputy Ron Mulvey responded to that call and was speaking to the homeowner when Mulvey got a second call from the 7100 block of West Andrus Road. That caller told a dispatcher that he had scared off someone who was removing a screen from a back window in his home.

The caller provided a description of the perpetrator’s car, including the license plate. A dispatcher ran the plate and found it was registered to Fuchs-Baker.

Deputy Rob Cunningham drove by Fuchs-Baker’s trailer in the mobile home park, but her car was not there.

As deputies continued to investigate the second incident, a third call came in at 10:42 a.m. from the 5400 block of South Grove Road.

The homeowner told a dispatcher that an intruder had just kicked in his front door and that he had fired shots with his .22-caliber pistol to frighten the trespasser away. He later told a deputy that one of his shots may have hit the intruder’s bumper.

That homeowner gave a description of the intruder, which matched Fuchs-Baker. He also later identified her, in person, as the intruder.

Witnesses declined requests for interviews Wednesday.

After the report of shots fired, Deputy Cunningham again checked the mobile home park and this time saw Fuchs-Baker’s car next to her mobile home, Reagan said.

More deputies arrived and surrounded the home. They called Fuchs-Baker, who finally agreed to come out of the house and was taken into custody about 11:50 a.m., Reagan said.

But she told them that two other men were inside the home and that they were refusing to come out. Deputies tried for more than an hour to talk the two men out of the trailer before they gave up without incident. They were not connected to the three 911 calls.

One of them, Gerald Mark Haig, 41, was arrested on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant charging him with no valid operator’s license, Reagan said.

Fuchs-Baker told deputies that she had stolen property in her home that was not connected to the Wednesday reports, Reagan said. The sheriff’s property crimes detective and a Property Crimes Task Force investigator were interviewing her late Wednesday afternoon, Reagan said.