December 28, 2009 in City

Region in brief: Police say man was suicidal

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Spokane Valley police shot and wounded a man they described as suicidal following a standoff Sunday.

The 55-year-old, whose name has not been released, was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds, authorities said.

Officers responded to a home in the 11700 block of East Fairview Avenue about 3:45 p.m. for reports of a suicidal man, said Spokane police Officer Jennifer DeRuwe.

The man confronted officers in the backyard before exiting his front door armed with a weapon and threatening them, DeRuwe said.

The case is being investigated by the Spokane Police Department as part of a standard interdepartmental agreement regarding officer-involved shootings.

Fire damages Spokane house

An east Spokane home was heavily damaged by fire early Sunday but everyone made it out safely, authorities said.

The cause of the 4:04 a.m. fire at 4111 E. 8th Ave. remains under investigation by the Spokane Fire Department.

The front porch was ablaze when police and firefighters arrived at the scene, according to the Fire Department. Although the initial attack quickly extinguished the porch, firefighters discovered the flames had spread into the attic and throughout the structure, forcing crews to remain at the scene throughout the day looking for hidden hot spots, Battalion Chief Mike Inman said in a news release.

Worker’s body found in salt pile

LONGVIEW, Wash. – Searchers found the body of a missing worker at a chemical plant in Longview.

The body of 25-year-old Justin J. Florek was recovered early Sunday from a large salt pile at the Equa-Chlor plant, where emergency workers had been looking for Florek since Friday.

Deputy Cowlitz County Coroner Brett Dundas said his office, the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Labor and Industries are investigating the death.

Four comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  Ninch on December 28 at 8:20 a.m.

  So the victim was suicidal… when are the police going to figure out that the victim needed professional help and not a confrontation with police officers? In fact, after so many previous incidents of shooting suicidal victims, I thought Spokane City policy/procedure was NOT to confront and instead to use professional negotiators!!!

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  lewis8457 on December 28 at 9:09 a.m.

  Most people that say they are contemplating suicide are not serious if they were they would have just done it. Sending a cop with a gun to talk down a suicide person is just dumb.

  If you want to commit suicide in Spokane just call the cops they will do the hard part for you. Blam, blam, blam, blam,

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  philipgregory on December 28 at 11:29 a.m.

  So, he was ‘threatening police while ‘carrying’ a weapon’.

  That’s serious, but doesn’t deserve being SHOT or killed like the Spokane police recently did. If he actually pointed it at them then there is sufficient threat to respond - though not always necessary.

  When are people going to have enough of these police killings, shootings and beatings? It seems there have been a lot more this past year.

  The police have developed an extremely agressive, militaristic maucho attitude pervasive in Washington state (probably others as well) that will take citizen political action to have any hope in mitigating.

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  lewis8457 on December 29 at 9:00 a.m.

  Thank you Philip, good point. We have a justice system but the perp has to make it to jail alive for it to work for them.

  Our cops in this town are judge jury and executioner. And with the Mayor agreeing that they can kill you and be justified, well no short term fix here