Wild chase suspects all in custody
A swarm of law enforcement officers captured a carjacking suspect Tuesday morning after he entered a South Hill apartment against the will of a mother and her two small children, authorities said.
Nobody was injured, and the suspect was taken into custody about 9:30 a.m., ending an 18-hour search following a crime spree by three suspects that included four stolen cars, a reported carjacking, a separate robbery and a crash into an unmarkedWashington State Patrol car in which a trooper fired a shot.
Two of the suspects were arrested Monday night. But authorities continued to search Tuesday morning for 26-year-old Lance Karunaratne.
Using a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter, a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy spotted Karunaratne running into Regal Ridge Apartments, 5111 S. Regal St. Spokane Police, State Patrol troopers and sheriff’s deputies closed surrounding streets and set up a perimeter as the helicopter circled overhead.
“Of the three suspects we were looking for, (Karunaratne) was the one we really wanted,” sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Barbieri said deputies and officers started going door to door in the apartments when a resident told a deputy, “He’s in here.”
The mother told the deputy she had two children in the apartment, and one was with the suspect in the back bedroom. The deputy told the woman to bring the other child outside, Barbieri said.
Authorities were hoping to isolate Karunaratne in the complex, slow everything down, bring in a negotiator and talk him out, he said. “But when we heard a kid was with him and the possibility of a firearm, we said we have to go in. We were not going to let him barricade himself in there with a small child,” Barbieri said.
After getting the mother and one child out, deputies rushed into the apartment and ordered Karunaratne out. He complied and was taken into custody.
The mother told investigators that her husband had just left for work when she saw her doorknob turn and heard a knock on her door. She looked out the peephole but saw no one, Barbieri said.
“She thought it was her husband trying to come back,” he said. Karunaratne “was hiding in a corner. When she opened the door, he stepped … in.”
Once inside, the suspect started telling her what was happening, he said.
“She was scared to death, but it doesn’t sound like he threatened her,” Barbieri said. “He asked to watch TV, and she asked to put on some more clothes and he said, ‘OK.’ “
The case started about 3:30 p.m. Monday, when deputies believe Karunaratne stole a 2001 Hyundai Elantra from Hallmark Hyundai at 8801 E. Sprague in Spokane Valley. He had put his name on paperwork at the dealership before he left with the car, Reagan said.
About an hour later, a 2002 Toyota Camry was stolen from Valley Fitness at 7 N. Herald Road. The Camry was later rolled at U.S. Highway 195 and Stentz Road. Inside the car, troopers found a job application with Karunaratne’s name on it.
A Jeep driver had happened upon three men standing outside the crashed Camry and offered them a ride before troopers arrived. The three forced the driver at knifepoint back to Spokane Valley and ended up in the parking lot of DéjÀ Vu Showgirls at 8722 E. Sprague, where the Jeep owner either was thrown out or escaped, Reagan said.
Police say the three then headed south of Spokane again.
A 21-year-old pregnant woman told police and reporters Monday night that she was walking on Thorpe Road when a red Jeep pulled over and someone inside offered her a ride. When she declined, the man demanded her purse and threatened her life, she said. The woman, who gave up her purse, said she saw no weapons and noticed only one person in the Jeep.
The Jeep was spotted about 9:15 p.m. by State Patrol Trooper Jim Hill on Excelsior Road east of Highway 195.
The trooper turned to pursue the Jeep, but the vehicle rammed his unmarked car nearly head-on and pushed it about 75 feet off the roadway into a fenced vacant field. Hill was treated and released at Deaconess Medical Center, Trooper Jeff Sevigney said.
“The three subjects in the vehicle advanced on Trooper Hill while he was still in his patrol vehicle” and Hill believes that one or more of the suspects were armed, Sevigney said.
Hill fired his weapon at the approaching suspects, but it’s not clear how many shots he fired or what – if anything – he hit. That’s part of a separate investigation, Sevigney said.
“Trooper Hill believes he was defending himself and that his life was in danger,” Sevigney said. “Whether or not there were weapons involved, we have those questions to answer.”
The three suspects fled into the sparsely populated area between Highway 195 and Latah Creek, Reagan said.
Deputies, SPD officers and troopers flooded the Excelsior Road area and set up containment in the rural area that runs generally from Highway 195 to Hangman Valley Road to the west and east, and Hatch and Excelsior from north to south.
Searching in the cold and dark, deputies first encountered an 18-year-old suspect, Christopher F. Olofson, hiding in a very marshy and muddy area along Latah Creek. He ended up on the opposite side of the water from deputies which delayed his arrest by about 20 minutes.
A second suspect, 17-year-old Andrey Fedin, broke into an occupied home in the 11200 block of South George. The scared resident called 911 to report the intruder, and deputies arrested him in the home’s basement.
After calling off the search early Tuesday, deputies and State Patrol troopers were sent to patrol the area. Then, just before 7 a.m., a woman called 911 from the 2200 block of East Casper Drive and told dispatchers someone had just stolen her 1992 Saturn, which she had left running in her driveway.
That car was found at 8:40 a.m. at the Moran Prairie Grange Hall, 61st Avenue and Palouse Highway. The Border Patrol helicopter was brought in and Deputy Larry Humphreys, acting as a spotter, saw Karunaratne running into Regal Ridge Apartments.
Investigators are processing the four stolen vehicles, burglaries of a cabin and a home, and the alleged assault on Hill, Reagan said later Tuesday. All three suspects were booked on charges of first-degree robbery and second-degree kidnapping for the carjacking, and more charges are anticipated.
“I don’t know what set him off,” Reagan said of Karunaratne. “Fortunately, nobody was hurt.”