Three-Gun Salute Startles Some People

A three-gun salute at a military funeral in the Spokane Valley scrambled sheriff’s deputies Wednesday.

Someone called 911 at 12:37 p.m., alarmed at hearing three shots fired in a row.

Three deputies zeroed in on the neighborhood near Pines Cemetery, trying to determine where the shots came from.

A woman who didn’t want to be identified said that she, too, heard the shots. Then, she opened her back door and heard a bugle. Soon after, a deputy came to her door.

“He looked so relieved when I told him I thought it was a funeral. I said, ‘Unless I’m going crazy I think I heard “Taps” being played,”’ she said.

An employee at Hazen and Jaeger Funeral Home said a funeral for an Army veteran was conducted at Pines Cemetery at 12:30 p.m.

“Oops. I guess we forgot to call 911,” said Marci Kennedy of the funeral home. “Normally, we call them when we have a military funeral, because they get a ton of phone calls.”

, DataTimes