Rachel Alexander

A Spokane woman has been charged with robbery after she allegedly punched two Rite Aid employees and tried to break open a package of knives she was leaving the store with.

A Spokane man arrested on domestic violence charges that were later dismissed is suing the Spokane Police Department, claiming five officers assaulted him and violated his constitutional rights. But reports from responding officers indicate Lucas T. Cassidy, 35, was uncooperative and resisted arrest when police attempted to take him into custody. Cassidy faced charges of assault and obstructing a police officer on Oct. 14, 2012, after a neighbor called to report a man and woman were fighting loudly. The neighbor said she believed the man was hitting the woman and reported hearing the woman tell the man that he had made her bleed.

Police arrested a Spokane woman for assault after she allegedly threw a brick through the driver's side window of an unmarked police car Friday.

Two alleged accomplices to an armed robbery at the Maverick Gas Station in Cheney were identified by police after one returned to the gas station on the same day to buy cigarettes with cash presumably taken during the robbery.

With the family of Otto Zehm looking on, Spokane police Chief Frank Straub said his department has an obligation to enact large-scale reforms announced by the Department of Justice on Friday. The review, which spans five years of data on use of force and surveyed dozens of officers about their attitudes and approaches to law enforcement, had long been demanded by citizens and activists in the wake of the janitor’s death in March 2006. The department will have 18 months to comply fully with the recommendations, or potentially face a more comprehensive and mandatory review by federal officials.

Spokane is the second city to undergo a voluntary review with the Community Oriented Policing Services office of the Justice Department, after Chief Frank Straub requested an audit of use-of-force policies and practices in the fall of 2013. Straub’s request came after then-Mayor Mary Verner said she would seek a full “patterns and practices” review of the police department by the Office of Civil Rights in November 2011, just a few weeks before the end of her term.

After formally accepting the resignation of police ombudsman Tim Burns on Wednesday, members of the Police Ombudsman Commission appointed one of their own to serve on the selection committee to find Burns’ replacement.

Comments made by a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy during a public event Dec. 7 have drawn fire and protest plans from self-proclaimed constitutionalists, who say the sheriff is targeting law-abiding gun owners with military equipment obtained from the federal government. Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said critics are taking seven seconds of video out of context and using it as an excuse to criticize law enforcement.

A man has been charged for allegedly manufacturing hash oil and causing an explosion in a mobile home park in Spokane Valley.

After five and a half years on the job, Spokane's first police ombudsman announced Friday he'll be retiring in early 2015.

After passing a moratorium on new marijuana businesses earlier this week, the Spokane Valley City Council may once again harden its stance on pot with a measure to curb underage use. Council members will decide at their Tuesday meeting whether to have city staff draft an ordinance penalizing minors who have consumed marijuana or are under its influence in public.

A group of Indian Trails neighbors have has joined forced with Spokane police to clean up a problem home in their neighborhood.

The seemingly simple idea of outfitting police officers with body cameras to capture interactions with citizens has raised concerns across cities in Washington about individual privacy and the scope of the state’s Public Records Act. Police wearing cameras can enter private homes, record rape victims describing their attackers and capture footage of people in the middle of mental health crises. Although identifying details like addresses and Social Security numbers may be blurred or redacted, the resulting footage generally becomes a public record, available to anyone who files a request.

A fatal head-on collision between a tanker truck and passenger car Thursday morning closed State Highway 395 about 10 miles south of Chewelah.

A man who family members called paranoid and who was known for making threats is accused of killing two of his uncles in Spokane Valley. Prosecutors charged Christopher B. Ramirez Monday with two counts of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm for the Nov. 1 double homicide of brothers Juan Gallegos-Rodriguez and Arturo Gallegos.

Christopher B. Ramirez, the nephew of homicide victims Juan Gallegos-Rodriguez and Arturo Gallegos, will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the Nov. 1 double homicide.

An unknown amount of money and a great deal of holiday cheer were stolen when two Salvation Army kettles were taken from bell ringers outside grocery stores in the Inland Northwest. A kettle stolen in Post Falls on Tuesday has been recovered, but one stolen in Spokane on Saturday still is missing. No one has been arrested.

An unknown amount of money and a great deal of holiday cheer were stolen when two Salvation Army kettles were taken from bell ringers outside grocery stores in the Inland Northwest.

Both the shooter and the victim in a Saturday altercation told police they were trying to break up the same argument at 818 West Maxwell Ave.

A thief stole an unknown amount of money and a great deal of Holiday cheer on Saturday when he made off with a Salvation Army kettle at a South Hill grocery store.