Spokane police searching for homicide suspect following Tuesday shooting on lower South Hill

One woman is dead, a man is critically injured and the woman suspected of shooting them is on the run.

The thrumming of a search helicopter could be heard Tuesday night on the South Hill as police combed the area for a female suspect who allegedly shot the victims around 3 p.m. at an apartment complex on the 2000 block of 10th Avenue.

The dead woman’s body was found in a stairwell. The man with a gunshot wound to the head was rushed to a hospital.

Their connection to the suspect – described as a short, black woman between 25 and 35 years old – was unknown.

A description broadcast across the police scanner during the early stages of the search said the suspect was wearing a gray stocking cap, plaid pajamas, a jacket and had a short haircut.

The Spokane Police Department, which also used K9s, searched inside and outside homes and yards in a wide area as they responded to the initial shooting report.

One neighbor, who wished to not be identified, said he heard about five gunshots before police swiftly arrived.

As the searched unfolded Tuesday afternoon, officers asked people to avoid the area. School buses dropping off children were asked to reroute to another location.

Police said the suspect’s connection to the neighborhood was unknown. The victims’ names and ages were not released Tuesday. The Spokane Medical Examiner will release the name of the deceased woman at a later time.

Shirley Wilson, who has lived near the apartments since the 1970s, said she hasn’t experienced a shooting in her neighborhood.

“It’s scary,” Wilson said. “Something that happens in other neighborhoods, not mine. But here it is.”