Man sought in fatal shooting

Spokane police were searching Friday for a person of interest in a deadly shooting Thursday morning at a downtown hotel.

Kevin Heaton, 35, has an extensive criminal history and should be considered “armed and dangerous,” police said in a news release.

Police sped to the Days Inn hotel at 120 W. Third Ave. early Thursday to find Paul A. Haney, 33, of Yakima, in the parking lot, dead from gunshot wounds.

Detectives searched three hotel rooms and found weapons and methamphetamine. A handgun was found near Haney’s body, and another handgun was found in a different part of the parking lot.

Heaton’s record includes an April arrest for his alleged role in a burglary ring. Police found large amounts of stolen goods, including motorcycles and guns, and seized about 3  1/2 pounds of meth and marijuana in the case, which included six other arrests.

Heaton is divorced and has at least two young children, according to court records.

As police investigated the shooting Thursday, they seized a red moped in the motel parking lot that they now say was driven by another man in a Wednesday drive-by shooting.

On Friday, detectives added charges of attempted murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm and stolen property against Jimmy Blackburn, who was arrested at the Days Inn on Thursday on a warrant. He remains in Spokane County Jail.

Blackburn is accused of firing a handgun at three teens while driving past on the moped. The bullets struck a parked car, and no one was injured.