In brief: Armed man robs cell phone store
Spokane police are looking for a man who robbed a northeast Spokane cell phone store Tuesday at gunpoint.
The man walked into the Cricket store at 4009 N. Market St., displayed a silver-colored handgun and demanded cash. He fled on foot.
He was described as black, about 30 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall and 150 to 160 pounds. He wore a blue bandanna under a dark baseball cap with a white logo or letter on it. He also wore a dark jacket, blue jeans and white sneakers with black stripes.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS or (509) 327-5111 or provides tip online at www.crimestoppers inlandnorthwest.org.
Inmates arrested after leaving crew
Three prisoners who walked away from a work crew near the Idaho-Montana border were arrested after a gas station clerk saw two of them in a parking lot just minutes after a deputy dropped off wanted posters.
Matthew S. Harris, 26, a convicted burglar from Bannock County, and Jeffrey A. Whipple, 46, imprisoned on a weapons charge out of Kootenai County, were arrested at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday night, according to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
Garry G. Layman, 36, also a Bannock County burglar, was found two hours later about a quarter mile from the station, the Sheriff’s Office said.
All were eligible to be released before the end of the year but now face escape charges.
Four arrested in Wal-Mart killing
LAKEWOOD, Wash. – Four people have been arrested in the slaying of an armored-car guard as he carried a money bag out of a bank branch at a Wal-Mart, police said Wednesday. One suspect was a Wal-Mart employee on duty during the robbery.
A 37-year-old man believed to be the gunman and a 20-year-old man believed to be the second person shown on surveillance footage of the Tuesday afternoon robbery were arrested Wednesday, Lakewood police Lt. Heidi Hoffman told a news conference.
Arrested Tuesday night were a 41-year-old man thought to be the getaway driver and the 42-year-old female Wal-Mart employee.
All four were arrested for investigation of homicide, robbery and assault. Police did not identify them.
Loomis security guard Kurt Husted was shot in the head while leaving an Anchor Bank branch inside a Wal-Mart in this south Tacoma suburb. The same bullet also wounded a customer.
Hoffman said surveillance video of the robbery made it clear the shooter didn’t try to take the money without violence.
“They just walked up and executed him,” she said. “It was very violent, very cold-blooded.”
Police recovered about two-thirds of the money and a gun. Hoffman wouldn’t specify the amount taken but confirmed it was in five figures.
‘Listening’ meeting scheduled tonight
An organization backed by the Democratic National Committee to help President Barack Obama will hold a town hall-style meeting tonight at the East Central Community Center.
Organizing for America, which grew out of last year’s presidential campaign, scheduled a meeting in Spokane as part of what it calls the Obama Listening Tour. The president won’t be there, but the organization’s state director will compile information from participants and send it to the nation’s capital.
The meeting will starts at 6 p.m. at the community center, 500 S. Stone St.
Second person dies under suicide law
SEATTLE – A second terminally ill person has died under Washington state’s new assisted suicide law.
A nonprofit group advocating for better end-of-life care says the family of the second person using Washington’s “death with dignity” act wishes to remain private. So no further details are expected to be released.
Linda Fleming, a 66-year-old woman from Sequim, Wash,, was the first person to die under the new assisted suicide law. Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer and died in May.
Last November, Washington became the second state to have a voter-approved assisted suicide law.
State health officials report nine people have received a fatal medication from a Washington pharmacy.