Gun Victim Not Type To Start Fight, Friend Says

A Spokane man gunned down outside a downtown convenience store early Sunday wasn’t the type of man who would start a fight, a friend said.

David E. Witt, 27, was in a fistfight with a man about 2 a.m. outside the Mid City Food Mart when a bystander, who is now in police custody, fatally shot Witt, authorities said.

“It’s really hard to fathom Dave starting a fight. Dave didn’t do that,” said a roommate and longtime friend of Witt’s.

“He was the most passive person I know - until pushed.”

The roommate, who claims to have witnessed the shooting, asked not to be identified, fearing retaliation. He said he was inside the convenience store at Lincoln and Second when the scuffle began.

After the shooting, Lanolan Anderson, 21, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder. Bail has been set at $1 million.

Witt, who was recently divorced, has a 5-year-old son. He is an avid mountain climber and motorcyclist, his friend said.

“Dave is probably the most responsible, wonderful man I know,” said Kenneth Grandfield, who is married to Witt’s older sister.

Witt graduated from North Central High School and worked as a dry-wall installer.

Witt’s roommate said he and another friend were inside the store Sunday when they heard shots fired. They went outside and discovered Witt had been shot and wounded.

Witt’s roommate said he then tried to disarm Anderson, the alleged gunman. But Anderson struck him in the head with the handgun.

Anderson then turned back to the wounded man and fired three more shots, one of which hit the victim in the chest, police said.

In an interview Sunday, Anderson claimed he accidentally fired four or five times after a man ran out of the store and began hitting him.

But the roommate said the shootings were no accident. He remembers hearing Witt scream, “You already shot me,” to Anderson, before the fatal shots were fired.

, DataTimes