Student Faces Assault Charge

Wed., Feb. 14, 1996

From Staff Reports

Prosecutors charged an Eastern Washington University student with assault with a deadly weapon Tuesday for reportedly threatening another student with an 8-1/2-inch knife.

Christopher Snelling, 19, was being held in the Spokane County Jail in lieu of $5,000 bail late Tuesday.

Acting District Court Commissioner Brad Chinn ruled that Snelling can be released Friday if the prosecutor’s office doesn’t pursue the second-degree charge by then.

University police Lt. Tom McGill said Snelling held the knife to the face and neck of a female student who was visiting his room in Morrison Hall on Saturday.

The victim and two other students were watching movies with Snelling and were teasing him before the attack, saying the victim “could beat him up,” McGill said.

Snelling apparently took offense and pulled the knife from under his bed.

“They were joking around and he wasn’t,” McGill said.

The three students then left the room. On Monday, they called university police, who arrested Snelling at his room just before midnight.

McGill said Snelling admitted threatening the woman with the knife.

, DataTimes

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