Man held after long standoff in Valley

A standoff between law enforcement officers and a man armed with a scoped rifle inside a Spokane Valley mobile home park ended shortly before midnight Friday, when the suspected gunman was brought down with a beanbag round.

Spokane Valley police, sheriff’s deputies and Spokane police had cordoned off the 51-unit Valley Breeze mobile home park at 6300 E. Second Ave. for at least six hours.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan said earlier Friday that officers hoped to establish contact with the man before taking any action. “Time is our ally,” he said. “We don’t want to force a confrontation.”

At about 11:50 p.m., the man came out of his mobile home on his own – unarmed – and officers shot him with a beanbag gun, police said. The man was taken into custody. His identity had not been confirmed as of early this morning.

For most of Friday evening, officers had been unable to talk to the man, although he called 911 about 6:15 p.m. in an agitated condition and reportedly shouted obscenities.

“If he’s who we think he is, he may be hearing-impaired, and he may also have a speech impediment,” which may have hampered efforts to talk to him, Reagan said.

He said the man was believed to have some criminal convictions from the 1980s but declined to elaborate.

The first shots Friday were reported about 11 a.m. but weren’t investigated because no officer was in the area and no one had seen the gunman, Reagan said. Then, about 2:45 p.m., another caller reported hearing shots. Shortly after that, the woman who called at 11 a.m. called again to report that her son’s car had been hit by a bullet.

At that point, Reagan said, “We called in the cavalry.”

About 65 officers were involved by late evening.

The gunman didn’t respond to officers who addressed him with a bullhorn and repeatedly hung up when officers telephoned.

An outdoor wedding reception at the nearby VFW Post 1433 was allowed to continue after trucks were placed between the gunman’s home and the reception area, which was uphill and out of the line of fire.

Reagan said officers got “just sketchy information” about the suspect from neighbors but learned that people in the area had been hearing shots since Wednesday. The earlier gunfire hadn’t been reported previously.

Most nearby homes were evacuated, but 79-year-old Erla Engman remained in her home three doors away from the gunman’s. She said she doesn’t know her neighbors well and wasn’t sure which one might be the suspect.

She said the man who lives in the unit that Reagan described is “a little slow.” She didn’t know the man’s name.

“He speaks to me occasionally,” Engman said. “I always think of him as a gentle soul. … I don’t know what could have set him off. He’s never been violent as far as I know.”