Man killed in bar shooting identified

Spokane Police on Tuesday identified the man killed early Saturday outside a North Side bar.

Calvin Banks, 28, was shot in the heart in what police described as a confrontation between two gangs that escalated to a shootout at Crazy 8’s bar, 21 E. Lincoln Road.

On Monday, investigators announced they are searching for a person who apparently videotaped the gathering early on New Year’s Day just as the shooting took place, Sgt. Joe Peterson said.

“It spilled outside the bar at closing time,” Peterson said of the bar. “It was a combination of what happened in the bar and two different gangs.”

Investigators believe one group of gang members waited for the other near Banks’ car about 2 a.m. Saturday and shot him once in the chest, Peterson said. “It certainly appears he was the intended victim,” Peterson said.

The autopsy Monday showed that a single shot hit the Banks in the heart, Peterson said. “We believe the group that was with the victim returned gunfire.”

One of those shots grazed the neck of a young woman who was standing nearby and talking to both groups, Peterson said. She was treated at a local hospital, and released.

“She was very lucky. Another quarter inch and it would have hit her spine,” Peterson said. “She wasn’t a bystander. She knew the people involved.”

Another bullet or bullets may have struck a white Ford Taurus, from the mid-1990s, in which the shooter, and other members of the group, fled the scene, Peterson said.

Banks, who is originally from Arkansas, had a criminal record in his home state involving drugs, but he has no criminal record in Spokane or Washington, police spokesman Dick Cottam said in a press release. Peterson said Monday that Banks had gang affiliations.

The big break in the case could come from the video. A Washington State Patrol trooper was working off-duty as security at the bar and saw a car drive past at the time of the shooting, police spokesman Dick Cottam said. Someone inside that car was videotaping people gathered behind the bar, Peterson said.

“We’d love to talk to the people with the video,” Peterson said. “I don’t think they were involved in the shooting. I think it was a coincidence.”

Detectives continue to search for 17-year-old Deric D. Burton, who recently moved to Spokane from Compton, Calif., Peterson said.

“He’s a suspect in this case,” Peterson said of Burton. “I’m not prepared to say he’s the shooter. We’d love to talk to him and figure out exactly what his role was.”

Beyond the video and the search for Burton, investigators have talked to plenty of witnesses who either were intoxicated or told them to get lost, Peterson said.

“Several witnesses have been less than cooperative for various reasons,” Peterson said. “We have to just keep plugging away and keep putting pressure on certain people. It’s just the nature of the business.”

A cash reward had been offered for information that leads to the arrest of Burton, Cottam said. He did not say how much cash is being offered.

Anyone with information about the video or the case is asked to call Secret Witness at 327-5111. Callers are asked to use a code name or number and do not have to use their own name to be eligible for the reward.