Armed man wounded by police was medic in Army
The man shot and wounded by police in a north Spokane neighborhood late Wednesday night is a former Army combat medic who works at Spokane’s Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center.
Craig S. Burton, 25, reportedly fired a gun several times and yelled “Do it!” before he was shot, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Burton was in critical condition at a local hospital on Thursday.
Police were called to Burton’s home at 5527 N. Ash St. about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday and told Burton was possibly armed and suicidal in the backyard. The Sheriff’s Office said officers were planning to deploy less lethal options when Burton began shooting. One officer returned fire, wounding Burton.
“We heard about 10 or 11 gunshots,” said a neighbor who declined to give his name. He looked out his window and saw a man in the alley behind the home where officers were called. “He didn’t get very far when the cops caught up to him and took him down,” he said.
Investigators recovered a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and several spent .40-caliber shell casings from the scene.
Michael Mears, who lives nearby, said he heard a “barrage of gunfire.”
Soon after, a woman who said she was the man’s girlfriend ran from the home, Mears said. He said he heard her tell officers that she took as much ammunition from the home as possible. After she left the home, Mears heard a single shot.
Burton and his estranged wife, Tiffany Burton, have three children under the age of 5. The couple married in Gallatin, Missouri, in 2008, according to court documents.
Tiffany Burton filed for a restraining order against her husband in January, saying Burton showed up at her door at 2:30 a.m. and appeared to be intoxicated. She said in court documents he arrived at her house with a gun and a German shepherd and threatened to kill her boyfriend. She wrote Burton told her he had put an empty gun to his head “to see what it would feel like” and “wanted to talk to his kids before he kills himself.”
The petition for a restraining order was denied when Tiffany Burton failed to show up for a court hearing. At the end of January, Craig Burton filed for a divorce.
Craig Burton lived in Cameron, Missouri, before being stationed with the Army in Korea and at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma. According to his LinkedIn profile, Burton was in the Army from 2009 until December 2012 and was in the Washington Army National Guard in Spokane until January.
His profile also said he worked at the Oso, Washington, mudslide for a month in 2014, providing medical care to rescue workers as well as searching for victims of the slide.
VA Medical Center spokesman Bret Bowers confirmed Burton has worked at the VA as an intermediate care technician since December 2012. The ICT program was created to provide jobs for former military medics in VA hospital emergency rooms.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting as part of the Spokane Investigative Regional Response team, which investigates deadly uses of force.
The Spokane Police Department will release the name of the officer involved. One officer was wearing a body camera and the footage was reviewed Thursday, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Mark Gregory.
Documents charging Burton with first-degree assault have been forwarded to the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office for review, the Sheriff’s Office said.