Spokane deputies investigating fatal assault

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies are looking for a man involved in a fight outside a Spokane Valley restaurant that left one man dead. The medical examiner’s office said Chad W. Mathis, 32, died of a brain herniation due to skull fractures and brain contusions from a blunt impact to his head. The cause of death is listed as homicide. Mathis died Feb. 14, five days after an altercation in the parking lot of Mama’s Thaiway Lounge, 5908 E. Broadway Ave., according to a release from the sheriff’s office. Deputies are looking for the “second combatant,” the release said, described as 6 feet tall with a thin build and short, darker-colored hair. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap at the time of the incident. He may have left the scene with a woman in a silver or gold Chrysler four-door sedan. Investigators believe the second combatant punched Mathis one time before Mathis fell to the ground. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Kirk Keyser at (509) 477-6611.