Drive-by shooter narrowly misses woman

Paulette Johnsrud was sitting on her bed, writing a birthday card to her 4-year-old daughter early Thursday, when a bullet burst through the glass of her bedroom window.

It pierced a white curtain less than a foot from Johnsrud’s head.

“I’m so scared right now, I don’t know what to do anymore,” Johnsrud said.

The newcomer to Spokane Valley lay motionless as an unknown shooter peppered the house with bullets.

No one was injured in the drive-by shooting in the 12500 block of East Boone Avenue. Johnsrud lives in the targeted house with friends.

The Spokane Valley Police Department is investigating the shooting, which was reported about 1:40 a.m. Thursday. No suspects had been identified.

“We have very little to go on,” said Spokane Valley Police Department Spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Drive-by shootings rarely occur in Spokane Valley. The Boone Avenue drive-by appears to be the first this year.

Johnsrud moved to Spokane Valley less than two weeks ago from a small town in North Dakota. She said she doesn’t have enemies in town, but guesses someone else at the house must. The past few nights, someone has been lurking around the house, said Johnsrud and Depriest Williams, who is friends with the tenants.

Not long before the shooting, Williams and several other people left the house. Williams said he wonders if the shooters mistakenly thought they were still inside.

“They meant for somebody to get hit,” he said.

A bullet went through another bedroom and lodged in the wall by the bathroom. Police removed part of the wall as evidence.

Several witnesses said they heard six shots fired, Reagan said. One witness said he heard a car race away westbound on Boone immediately after the shots were fired.

Officers found four bullet strikes in the front of the home and collected partial bullets and other evidence from the scene, Reagan said. No shell casings were found along the roadway, suggesting the shooter may have used a revolver, where the casings stay in the weapon’s cylinder, Reagan said.

Besides Johnsrud, three others were sleeping inside the house, one of them a young child.

Johnsrud’s daughter, Risa, had left on vacation and was gone at the time of the shooting. She turned 4 on Wednesday.

Johnsrud said she’s horrified to think that her daughter could’ve been in the house during the shooting.

“I’m not staying here anymore, not in this house, at least,” Johnsrud said.