Man accused of threatening deputy with a baseball bat in Spokane Valley

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said deputies chased and arrested a 58-year-old man after he threatened to attack one deputy with a baseball bat Sunday morning in Spokane Valley.

At about 8:30 a.m. Deputy Tim Jones responded to a report of a suspicious man who was carrying a bat and walking in and out of the roadway near Pines Road and Sprague Avenue, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

When Jones arrived, the man, later identified as Kevin R. Alexander, walked toward him and raised the bat with both hands, apparently getting ready to swing it while about 15 yards from the deputy, the sheriff’s office said.

Alexander ignored commands to stop approaching, then turned around and started running toward businesses on the south side of Sprague, still wielding the bat, the sheriff’s office said. Jones followed but lost sight of Alexander in an alleyway behind the businesses.

Additional deputies responded and found Alexander in a neighborhood south of Sprague. The sheriff’s office said he tried to escape by jumping fences and running through carports and backyards, but deputies Darin Schaum and James Melton eventually confronted him in the yard of a residence in the 400 block of South Houk Road.

Schaum, wielding his baton, ordered Alexander to drop the bat, and he complied – but he ignored other commands and tried to flee again by hopping another fence, the sheriff’s office said. Before Alexander reached the fence, Schaum “grabbed his arm and brought him to the ground” while the other two deputies assisted, the sheriff’s office said.

The deputies “delivered strikes” after Alexander grabbed one of their batons, and eventually he was placed into handcuffs, the sheriff’s office said. Alexander was given medical attention and then taken to the Spokane County Jail on a charge of attempted third-degree assault.