Spokane man comes to injured girl’s aid, gets beaten up

A 41-year-old man stopped to help a teen who fell from the top of a moving SUV, and was beaten by the girl’s friends early Tuesday.

The good Samaritan was treated, then released from a local hospital, police said. The 17-year-old girl, who suffered head and internal injuries, including a ruptured artery to the brain, underwent surgery Tuesday at Sacred Heart Medical Center and was listed in serious but stable condition. Police are withholding both their identities.

One teenager was taken into custody in connection with the attack on the good Samaritan.

A second is being sought for questioning. Police said Tuesday that Dennis Sprayberry, 19, was riding in the Ford Explorer when the assault occurred but is not considered a suspect.

The girl fell from the vehicle about 2 a.m. at the intersection of Helena and Desmet in north-central Spokane.

She was leaving a party with three friends and climbed out the window of the moving SUV. She was riding on the top when the driver turned a corner and sent her flying onto the pavement, said Sgt. Joe Peterson, of the Spokane Police major crimes unit. All of the people in the SUV had been drinking, he said.

A man walking down the street stopped to help the woman. After hearing the woman’s cries for help, neighborhood residents Kyle Teeples, 13, and Jeremy Miner, 15, watched the good Samaritan load the woman back into the SUV. When she was inside, she started screaming and the man, whom many neighbors in the area called “Bob” but didn’t know his last name, told the young men in the vehicle that he was going to take the woman to the hospital, Teeples said.

The woman’s friends then knocked the man down, stomped on his head, and broke a 40-ounce bottle of Olde English 800 over it, Teeples said.

“He tried not to leave her alone with them,” Miner said. “That’s when they started beating him up.”

The Havana and Desmet intersection had broken glass in the middle Tuesday afternoon, and a trail of blood stretched three houses down to a large blood stain on the sidewalk. Bloody handprints marked the spot where the man waited for police to arrive.

The assault victim doesn’t know why the men beat him up, but alcohol was clearly a factor, Peterson said.

The girl’s friends took her to a friend’s house where they tried to treat her themselves, Peterson said.

At about 4 a.m. she was taken to a local hospital.

The unnamed driver does not face charges, though police are still investigating.

The injured woman “does incur some of the responsibility for climbing on top of a moving vehicle,” Peterson said.