Standoff suspect’s earlier visit described

Court documents say the suspect in Tuesday’s all-day armed standoff at a north Spokane motel not only flooded his room but scattered pistol ammunition across the lobby during a previous visit.

Employees of the Ramada Inn, 9601 N. Newport Highway, called police when Jeremy Dee Hanson left a trail of cartridges as he walked from the lobby to his room on Nov. 30. But Hanson, 26, and the woman who checked in with him left before officers arrived.

That woman was believed to be Courtney M. Baker, 28, who checked in again on Monday with her 6-year-old daughter. The clerk who had followed Hanson last week spotted him in the lobby on Tuesday and called police again.

According to search warrant documents, Baker told officers who knocked on her motel room door that Hanson was threatening to shoot himself, and she feared he would kill her.

A police affidavit says Hanson was convicted of theft in Montana, and Missoula police advised that he was suspected of being a methamphetamine and heroin dealer who traveled regularly between Missoula and Spokane – always armed with a handgun.

After Hanson surrendered late Tuesday night, police found a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol and ammunition, drug paraphernalia, a scale and a police scanner in the room. A bullet, fired through the motel room door, was removed from a wall.

Hanson was booked on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and on a Missoula County fugitive warrant charging possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Police said additional charges were planned.

Baker was booked on suspicion of second-degree criminal mistreatment for allegedly ignoring opportunities to extricate her daughter from the armed stand-off.