Police say man had pellet gun
Valley officers shot apparently suicidal resident
A reportedly suicidal man shot by Spokane Valley police Friday was armed with a pellet gun that resembles a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol, according to a search warrant filed Tuesday.
David J. Glidden, 27, was shot twice in the upper body after emerging from a Spokane Valley home armed with an Airsoft pellet pistol, the warrant said.
Officer Aaron Childress fired a handgun and Officer Griffin Criswell fired a 12-gauge shotgun at Glidden. Some of those rounds went through the wall of a neighbor’s home.
Glidden, who was in stable but serious condition at a local hospital Tuesday, was shot by police just after exiting a home at 4727 E. Third Ave., where he’d been living for a few days after breaking up with his girlfriend, a friend told detectives.
Before the shooting, Glidden was home alone and called a friend he met through Alcoholics Anonymous and threatened to commit suicide, according to the warrant, filed in Spokane County District Court.
“Glidden said he was ‘going to kill somebody or kill himself,’ ” according to the warrant. The friend called 911.
Glidden first called his friend at about 7 a.m. and told him he’d been drinking. About four hours later, Glidden called his friend again.
“He told (his friend) he had the gun in his hand and was cocking it,” according to the warrant.
“(His friend) could hear the sound of what he thought was a gun being cocked.”
Childress was near the southwest corner of the residence, and Criswell near the southeast corner when they fired shots at Glidden, according to documents.
Investigators found three spent .45-caliber shell casings and one spent shotgun shell casing.
A neighbor said last week that he heard five shots and that rounds blew through a side wall of his home.
After the shooting, police seized seven empty Budweiser cans, among other items, inside Glidden’s home, the warrant said.
Childress and Criswell have more than 10 years of law enforcement experience each, police said.
The Spokane Police Department is investigating the shooting.