Briefly

SWAT team talks teen from mall roof

A 19-year-old Spokane man forced Spokane Police to deploy its SWAT team after he climbed onto the top floor of the Northtown Mall parking garage and threatened to kill himself.

Andrew J. Collison, 3614 E. Everett, went to the top floor of the garage about 8 p.m. Saturday. He told mall security and Spokane Police he had taken a .45-caliber handgun from his uncle and had it in his jacket, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release.

Police talked with Collison, and he told them he had been stealing money from his grandmother each morning and had stolen about $1,400 during the last week. He told police that he wanted to die because his grandmother had found out about the stolen money and had kicked him out of the house.

SWAT team members arrived and ordered Collison to surrender. He complied and was taken into custody, Cottam said.

Collison was booked into jail on charges of first-degree burglary, second-degree theft and possession of a stolen firearm. The gun was not loaded but he did have a loaded magazine for it, Cottam said.

Collison told police that he spent $200 of his grandmother’s money on tattoos, $60 for marijuana and $143 for a skateboard, Cottam said.

Man’s body recovered from river

A Pend Oreille County man’s body was recovered Saturday morning from the Pend Oreille River. He was believed to have drowned Friday evening.

The victim was identified as Newport-area resident Thomas James Arpin, 47.

Sheriff’s officers and search-and-rescue volunteers began looking for Arpin about 5 p.m. Friday when witnesses reported hearing a man in the river calling for help about 1 1/2 miles north of Newport. The search was suspended at nightfall. Searchers found Arpin’s body in about nine feet of water about 9 a.m. Saturday. A diver from Bonner County, Idaho, was called to help recover the body.