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

7-minute chase ends with crash in Valley


Spokane Valley firefighters take the top of a car off to extract the injured driver after the driver of another vehicle led police on a chase and hit the black Honda.
 (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)

A seven-minute police chase that sometimes reached speeds of 75 mph in Spokane Valley neighborhoods ended in a collision Thursday afternoon.

Police avoided the wreck, but their suspect, driving a blue Chevrolet Blazer, collided with a black Honda Accord, knocking both vehicles into a power pole and a locust tree before coming to a mangled mess in the lawn at 1124 N. Locust Road.

The wreck left bullets scattered on the yard, and officers later found a small amount of methamphetamine in the grass, as well, said Spokane Valley police spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan. There was a .22-caliber rifle with a pistol grip in the front seat of the smashed Blazer.

Spokane Valley police identified the driver as William James Lawrence, 26, and said the incident began with a report of domestic violence against a woman Thursday afternoon. Lawrence had shot the same woman through the arm and chest in April, in an apparently accidental shooting that remains under investigation, Reagan said.

Reagan said Lawrence faces a charge of first-degree assault for Thursday’s incident, and may also face felony charges of attempted kidnapping, attempting to elude police and vehicular assault.

Several police were immediately on the scene of Thursday’s accident. They handcuffed Lawrence after firefighters extricated him from what was left of the Blazer. Firefighters had to remove the roof of the Honda before they could extricate the other man, who had not been identified Thursday night.

Police said Lawrence and the other driver were taken to a hospital with minor to serious injuries.

The pursuit started at 4:48 p.m. near the 500 block of North Sommer Road, and wound through main streets and residential areas, where the speed limit most often was 35 mph. It ended about 4:55 p.m., when the Blazer went through the stop sign at Boone Avenue and crashed into the Honda that was headed south on Locust.

Carol Schjodt, who lives at the home where the vehicles landed, was shaken by the incident.

“I heard the sirens, started heading for my door and heard two loud booms,” she said. “By the time I got to the door it was all over.”

But it scared Schjodt because “just an hour earlier my 12-year-old grandson was out here mowing the lawn.”

Reagan said that deputies decided to continue the pursuit despite the high rate of speed in a residential area because Lawrence had committed several possible felonies and was a possible threat to the community.

The incident started about 3:45 p.m., when deputies were called to a domestic dispute on North Sommer Road. A 25-year-old woman reported that her ex-boyfriend had pointed a rifle at her head and tried to force her into a blue Chevrolet Blazer. She broke free and called police, who found bullets in the woman’s yard.

Reagan said an officer spotted the Blazer about an hour later, near Eighth and University. That’s when the chase began, with other officers blocking traffic at intersections where they thought the chase might lead.

The alleged victim in Thursday’s incident had been admitted to Valley Medical Center with a gunshot wound on April 6, Reagan reported.

She and Lawrence told police they were in the basement of an acquaintance’s home when a pistol discharged while Lawrence was handling it. Both said that shooting was accidental.

Officers that night found a gun hidden outside the hospital, and believe it was the handgun involved in the basement shooting. The search was prompted by hospital security officers, who told police that they had watched via video surveillance equipment as someone stashed something in the bushes just before the shooting victim was brought into the emergency room.