Home hit in drive-by shooting
Spokane Valley Police are investigating a drive-by shooting early Sunday that left a bullet hole in the wall of a bedroom where people were sleeping.
It was the second time in three months that police responded to reports of gunfire at the 900 block of South Collins, according to a news release from Cpl. Dave Reagan.
Concerned neighbors started calling 911 at about 5 a.m. to report hearing multiple gunshots, Reagan said.
Officers found 14 bullet casings believed to be from a semiautomatic rifle. A home was hit by four bullets, which passed through walls in the living room and bedroom. On the street, bullets damaged a white Honda and a Chevrolet Blazer, police said.
On May 14, officers were called to the same neighborhood after a gunman fired several shots at a home after an all-night party. That incident is still under investigation.
Anyone with information about either incident is asked to call Spokane Valley Police at 242-8477.
Woman arrested after cab driver reports threat
Spokane police over the weekend arrested a woman after a cab driver said she held a knife to his throat and attempted to carjack his car. The woman claimed she was a transient and a witch, police said.
Officers responded Saturday night to the 200 block of West Sprague to a call for help from a cab driver. The driver said a woman was trying to steal his AAA Taxi company vehicle and had held a knife to his neck, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a news release.
Officers John Arredondo and Nate Spiering and reserve officer Ron Van Tassel identified the woman as 51-year-old Berhan A. Werres, Cottam said. They arrested Werres on charges of first-degree assault and first-degree robbery.
The cab driver said after Werres held the knife to his throat, he got out of the car and she got into the driver’s seat. He then took the knife from her, Cottam said.
Werres spoke several times in a language no one at the scene recognized, Cottam said.
The driver had picked Werres up at a downtown hotel, and she said she wanted to go to Portland. The driver asked for the $500 fare in advance and that is when Werres became angry and pulled the knife, Cottam said.
The driver was not injured.
Twenty bronze vases stolen from cemetery
Spokane County Sheriff’s investigators are seeking information about someone who stole more than $2,000 worth of bronze vases from a local cemetery. The suspect also broke all the vase mounts on a wall.
The thief went to Fairmount Memorial Gardens, 5299 W. Wellesley, overnight Friday and stole 20 bronze flower vases from a memorial wall, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.
An employee speculated that the thief was after the metal, which could be sold as scrap.
The theft occurred sometime between 4 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. Saturday. Anyone with information is asked to call the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office at 242-TIPS (8477).
Band refuses to leave club’s stage
A warm-up band hit a sour note over the weekend at a Spokane nightclub.
Police arrested three members of The Lost Tribe, a local rock band that allegedly refused to yield the stage Saturday night at Crazy 8’s night club, 21 E. Lincoln Road. Members of the band sought to incite a riot by yelling profanities and urging the crowd to rebel against the club’s owners and security staff, said Spokane police spokesman Dick Cottam.
No injuries were reported.
According to police, the club owner told the band about 10:15 p.m. to leave the stage so the next act could set up, and to signal the beginning of restricted admission in which only patrons 18 and older would be allowed to stay. But the band continued playing and, according to police, spat at security staff, threw water bottles and jumped on club-owned sound equipment.
Arrested on misdemeanor charges of riot and failure to disperse were Richard L. Gendron, 22, Travis R. Adams, 24, and Weeptes Wilder, 21. Cottam said all were given affidavits of the arrest, and released pending court appearances.
Relocated killer whale reportedly thriving
Sequim, Wash.
Remember Springer, the killer whale moved from Puget Sound and reunited with her family pod in British Columbia waters?
A marine veterinarian involved in the move, Pete Schroeder, of Sequim, checked recently on Springer and said the 5-year-old orca is thriving in her natural environment in Johnstone Strait.
“The rehabilitation and relocation of (Springer) is unprecedented and an unequivocal success,” he wrote in the report for Global Research and Rescue, a group based in Freeland, Wash., that says its goal is to assist wildlife that might be in distress.
“She is a normal orca in her natural environment.”
Springer became a nuisance in early 2002, bumping into boats between Vashon Island and the Southworth ferry terminal.
She was underweight and showed evidence of a poor diet and skin problems.
She was alone after becoming separated from her family. So she was captured and moved to Johnston Strait, where she joined a pod of orcas.
Girls report man’s lewd behavior to police
Coeur d’Alene Police are seeking a man who allegedly drove past two girls on Thursday, masturbating as he watched them.
The girls told police the man drove past them near Government Way and Second Street. When he drove past again, the girls said he stopped close by and they saw that he was naked from the waist down and masturbating.
They described him as 40 years old, scruffy and “hairy, with dark hair … unshaven, heavyset, but not fat.” He was allegedly driving a maroon minivan with tinted windows.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Coeur d’Alene Police Department at (208) 769-2320 or the Tip Line at (208) 769-2296.