Jared Brown

The city of Spokane debuted A Place of Truths Plaza downtown Friday afternoon. The $25 million project features public art from indigenous artists and a wastewater tank that will keep runoff from draining into the river before it can be treated.

The Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office determined Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy Joseph Wallace was justified in shooting and killing Ethan A. Murray, 25, during a May incident at a Spokane Valley apartment complex.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner identified the armed man who was shot by a Spokane police officer near Esmeralda Golf Course on Wednesday afternoon as David W. Shafer, 61.

Sacajawea Middle School went into a brief lockdown as school was let out for the day Tuesday and a student was arrested several blocks away with a BB gun just before 3 p.m.

Former Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom DiBartolo, 64, who was convicted of killing his wife, Patty DiBartolo, in 1997, was jailed in Yakima Monday afternoon after his work release was suspended.

Lt. Col. Cindy Dawson is the new commander of the reactivated 97th Air Refueling Squadron at Fairchild Air Force Base, the largest wing of KC-135 Stratotankers in the world.

Catholic Charities announced this week it has hired a four-person security team trained by Spokane police to increase safety around its properties.

A fire destroyed a Cedar Chateau Estates apartment unit and damaged another Thursday afternoon. The residents of the damaged Spokane Valley apartment units were evacuated and investigators were working to determine the cause of the fire.

The race for Spokane County Fire District 10 commissioner comes down to financial versus emergency management experience. After the first primary election for a District 10 commissioner in more than a decade, voters whittled down their choices to Gordon Hester, a volunteer district 10 captain, who has been a commercial real estate broker for about 30 years, and Kevin Haughton, a Spokane city fire lieutenant, who has worked with Northwest Incident Management teams for about 13 years.

“We are the center of excellence for air refueling, which essentially is the backbone of our global reach capability,” said Col. Gene Jacobus, vice commander of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing. “We like to think that we put the ‘global’ in ‘global reach.’”

The chief watchdog of the Spokane Police Department raised a red flag on Tuesday about what he said is an “alarming,” crucial and unannounced change to how uses of force are referred to Internal Affairs investigators.

After Bonnie Rae’s dog Downey was killed and her daughter was bitten by a loose dog in north Spokane in September, she reached out to local officials about changing the 911 dispatch policy. Now Spokane police will go to all dangerous animal calls.

Around 400 volunteers planted about 3,000 small plants and 250 trees at two sites as a part of the Lands Council and Avista’s eighth annual Reforest Spokane Day.

William Mitchell was first booked into Spokane County jail on Jan. 25, 2017, on charges of first-degree robbery and second-degree assault. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree robbery and was sentenced to 63 months in prison Friday.

The fire spread to the attic and the roof after apparently starting near the rear of the home, KHQ reported. The two people inside were uninjured.

Nearly 60 crews of Avista employees have worked to restore power to more than 30,000 homes since Tuesday night’s surprise wintry storm, but about 1000 customers were still waiting for electricity as of Thursday evening. The storm inflicted most of its damage on power lines to individual homes, which made the restoration process longer and more laborious, according to Avista.

A hit and run just before midnight Wednesday, left the pedestrian dead and the driver of the SUV that hit him on the run.