Stray bullets tear through apartments

The bullet intended for a gang member tore through the wall of two apartments before crashing into the glass frame containing a collage of family pictures.

The .45-caliber slug punched through the drywall just inches above the head of a sleeping 3-year-old girl, Spokane Police Lt. Scott Mullennix said.

“It’s just a miracle that we didn’t have another Pasheen Bridges case,” Mullennix said, referring to the Spokane youngster killed by a stray bullet during a 2001 gang-related shooting. “These buildings are made with wood and sheetrock. Bullets go through them like a hot knife through butter.”

It appears the latest shooting, which occurred just after midnight Wednesday, was related to gang members trying to settle a score.

A 34-year-old confirmed gang member was shot in the lower left leg during the shooting outside the apartment at 3134 E. Jackson Ave. Mullennix said that the victim, whom police did not name, told officers that he was standing outside the triplex when a man inside a black Pontiac fired five or six rounds.

“We believe the (shooting) was the result of a fight a week before. Sort of a retaliatory strike,” Mullennix said.

One bullet hit the man in the leg, two bullets passed through the exterior wall of the first apartment.

Ira-John Rash, 24, said he was in his house across Jackson Avenue when he heard four shots. He opened his door and saw someone fire a fifth round, he said.

“I seen the guy hobbling around the corner and he walked towards the apartments,” Rash said. “I didn’t go over there. I didn’t want to get myself involved.”

The car carrying the shooter was driving East on Jackson. After the shooting, the car turned right and sped south on Greene Street, Rash said.

One of the two bullets that hit the first apartment crashed through the exterior wall, over a dining room table, through a light switch and traveled through another wall. The bullet continued across a room, passed through another wall and into the next apartment, just inches over the head of the sleeping 3-year-old girl.

Tony Padderatz, 22, lives in the third apartment in the triplex. The bullet just missed his neighbor, Shawna Swales, who lives in the apartment with her boyfriend, a 2-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, he said.

When the bullet came through Swales’ glass picture frame, she was lying on the wrap-around couch with her daughter. Her aunt was sitting at the other end of the couch, Padderatz said.

The bullet just missed the girl, then ricocheted off another picture frame just inches from the aunt’s head, Padderatz said. The bullet then hit the opposite wall, leaving a hole. The bullet bounced back and landed in a glass bowl sitting on top of the end table next to the couch.

Swales “moved her kids over to her mother’s apartment where she felt she was safer,” Padderatz said. “She’s been shook up ever since then.”

Padderatz also found where another bullet had grazed the front of his apartment before coming to rest in the parking lot between two parked cars.

“It could have gone in to my apartment,” he said. “We had just laid down to go to bed.”

Police continue to search for the shooter, who had not yet been identified, Mullennix said. The shooting victim does not live in the triplex but was apparently there to visit with Swales’ boyfriend.

Police Chief Roger Bragdon said in a press release that the case serves as a good example why residents should always report what they think are gunshots.

“Shooters hit more than they aim at,” he said, “and sometimes that can include innocent victims.”

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the TIPS line at (509) 242-8477.