In brief: Man arrested for violating court order
A man police say was in violation of a court order was arrested Thursday evening after he hid inside a north Spokane home’s attic, Spokane police officers said.
A court order prohibited Joseph P. George, 22, from being at the home. He assaulted a woman there and she sustained minor injuries, officers said.
When police responded, George hid in the attic. A SWAT team was called to the scene near Monroe Street and Wellesley Avenue around 6 p.m. to coax George out.
The situation lasted about an hour. The team threw a pepper spray device into the attic and George eventually complied with commands to come out, officers said.
Police arrested George on charges of residential burglary and a misdemeanor assault.
Fire destroys vehicle, damages structures
A fire that started in a motor home destroyed the vehicle and caused damaged to a garage and nearby houses in east Spokane just before 11 this morning.
Spokane Fire Battalion Chief Mike Thompson said a man was working on his motor home while it was under a lean-to structure on a property at 2812 E. Fifth Ave.
The man turned off the motor home and went into the house, Thompson said, and came back out a short time later to find it smoking. The man suffered minor burns to his fingers when he tried to lift up the hood of the motor home.
The fire spread to the shelter and a garage on a neighbor’s property at 520 S. Regal St.
The motor home and its shelter were completely destroyed, but firefighters were able to save much of the neighbor’s garage. Vinyl siding on both homes melted on the sides facing the fire.
Thompson said the cause of the fire was being investigated.
Spokane Bike Swap registration under way
The second annual Spokane Bike Swap, benefiting Friends of the Centennial Trail, is April 13 and 14 at the Spokane County Fair & Expo Center.
People looking to sell bikes at the event can register online at www.SpokaneBikeSwap.com. Registration costs $5 and the event charges a 5 percent consignment fee for bikes that are sold. Check-in takes place on April 12 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Admission to the swap costs $5 per person for those 13 and over; children 12 and under get in free. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Local vendors will have merchandise and information at the event, and the Kiwanis Club will provide free helmets and helmet fitting for kids ages 3 to 16 in the adjoining building.
Man arrested, charged with raping Pullman teen
A Western Washington man is in jail for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in Pullman last week, according to a Pullman Police news release.
Authorities arrested Walter M. Weeks, 36, after he reportedly chatted online with the victim for two weeks before driving to Pullman to meet her at a motel room on March 15, the release said.
The victim told detectives that several sexual acts took place at the motel room before he traveled back to his hometown of Des Moines.
Pullman detectives searched his home and seized a vehicle and electronic equipment.
His bail is set at $50,000 at King County Jail on a charge of third-degree rape of a child.
Burglary suspect arrested after chase
Spokane police arrested a burglary suspect after a chase through downtown Thursday morning.
Police spokeswoman Monique Cotton said a patrol officer spotted a man riding his bike into a parking garage near Washington Street and Sprague Avenue around 9:30 a.m.
The officer followed the man into the parking structure and saw him hiding between cars. The man then ran out of the structure and into a nearby building. Cotton said six officers surrounded the building and started to search it when the suspect fled from a side door.
He shed his coat and backpack, Cotton said, and ran until police caught him in an alley between West Main Avenue and West Riverside Avenue.
Cotton said police arrested 21-year-old Trevor R. McClure on suspicion of burglary. She said his backpack contained burglary tools and a window of a car in the parking lot was found to be broken out. She added it didn’t appear he had stolen anything.
He had a probation warrant pending, Cotton said, as well as another warrant on a charge of malicious mischief.
Cotton said the officer who spotted McClure was part of increased foot patrols downtown.
Burglar makes snack before stealing truck
Not only did a burglar steal away with a Newport man’s truck early Thursday morning, he prepared a meal in the victim’s kitchen.
The homeowner woke up around 2:30 a.m. to investigate a noise downstairs when he saw the truck driving away with the burglar at the wheel, according to the Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Office.
The burglar broke in through the dog door, he told dispatchers.
Deputies found the vehicle about 14 miles north of Newport on state Route 20 after the driver, later identified by deputies as James M. Ericksen, 30, was driving the truck erratically, the Sheriff’s Office said.
They pulled Ericksen over for a traffic stop and arrested him on suspicion of vehicle theft, DUI, driving with a suspended license and a failure to appear in court in another county.