Suspect surrenders 2 months after slaying

An accused killer is due in federal court in Spokane today after recently turning himself in in connection with a murder on the Colville Indian Reservation two months ago.

Rudy A. Garcia, 21, is accused of shooting David McCraigie in an early-morning fight Nov. 5 outside McCraigie’s home in Omak.

McCraigie, 22, died nine days later, but Garcia wasn’t captured until Wednesday, when he turned himself in to Colville Tribal Police, according to jail records.

He’s in the Spokane County Jail, due in U.S. District Court this afternoon on one count of first-degree premeditated murder.

McCraigie was airlifted to a Spokane hospital after being shot by Garcia in the pelvis with a 7 mm Magnum rifle, according to court documents.

The men, both members of the Colville Tribe, argued at a party at 810 Sixth St. in Omak before Garcia retrieved the rifle from his Jeep about 2 a.m.

“David McCraigie was heard asking Garcia ‘What, are you going to shoot me?’ ” according to court documents. “(A witness) stated that he saw Garcia discharge the rifle into the air and at David McCraigie.”

“The levels of violent crime in Indian Country are unacceptable,” Jim McDevitt, U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, the same holds true in Eastern Washington.”

Garcia’s girlfriend told police she’d driven him to a gravel pit on Rodeo Trail Road near U.S. 97 the morning of the murder. He had the rifle with him and said he’d messed up that night.

“She feared he was going to commit suicide,” according to the police reports, and took a cab back to the gravel pit to look for Garcia about 3:10 a.m.

Garcia told authorities he was tired of running when he turned himself in at the tribal jail Wednesday night, according to the Omak Chronicle.