Police involved in fatal shooting

Spokane police shot and killed an armed man outside a Hillyard tavern Saturday night.

Details were still sketchy late Saturday, and it was unclear how many officers were involved or whether shots were fired at police. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office was investigating the shooting, as is police protocol. Authorities closed North Market Street in both directions near the scene at Garland Avenue.

Sgt. Dave Reagan, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said police were called at 9:34 p.m. with a report of two men fighting in the parking lot at Special K Bar & Grill, 3817 N. Market St. They learned while driving to the tavern that one of the men was armed, Reagan said.

Police confronted the man with the gun, and that’s when the man was shot, Reagan said.

As authorities investigated late into the night, people who identified themselves as friends and family of the dead man began arriving at the scene. Two identified him as 34-year-old Jeremy Groom of Spokane, information that could not be confirmed through police.

Amanda Schafer, Groom’s former girlfriend, said he had three children, including her 2-month-old daughter. Groom had a concealed weapons permit, Schafer and other bystanders said. Other friends said Groom was an unemployed former Marine.

Spokane resident Kenny Burke, 20, said his sister called him Saturday night and handed the phone to a friend, who told him that his sister’s boyfriend, whom Burke identified only as Jeremy, had pulled a gun on police and was shot dead.