Diner regular held on gun charges

Giovanni Malito wears long hair, a headband and always has a bathrobe on over his clothes when he comes into the new Frank’s Diner at 10929 N. Newport Highway.

Malito, a 58-year-old resident alien from Italy, comes in almost every day and sits at the counter. He talks to the same two waitresses and the cook, said assistant manager Carissa Engles.

“He’s just looking to have a conversation with someone,” Engles said. “The tales are somewhat tall. But he’s never aggressive.”

But on Tuesday, while Malito drank his coffee, a customer saw something other than clothes under Malito’s blue-and-red striped robe. It was a holster carrying a .50-caliber Smith and Wesson Magnum pistol.

When Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Strezlecki arrived to check out the weapons call, Malito’s demeanor changed, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

Malito first said the gun in the holster under his robe was a BB gun, Reagan said. He then claimed to be an FBI agent, Jesus Christ and “the baddest man in America,” Reagan said.

As Strezlecki walked Malito outside, he bolted toward his car, Reagan said, and used a remote-access device to open his trunk, where he flung the pistol

Strezlecki caught Malito near the car and detained him until Deputy Dan Sicilia arrived. Malito told the deputies that he had a loaded SKS 7.62-caliber assault rifle in his car. Sicilia retrieved the loaded gun from the car’s back seat, Reagan said.

Sicilia then removed from the trunk the large pistol Malito had been carrying. It, too, was loaded. Sicilia also found in the car two swords, a hatchet, two 8-inch hunting knives, a 5-inch folding knife and a pocket knife.

The deputies called agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who interviewed Malito and determined he did not have an alien firearms license and was a convicted felon.

Reagan said Malito, 32604 N. Elk-Chattaroy Road, was convicted in 1991 in Oregon for being a felon in possession of a firearm, although it’s unclear what felony conviction preceded that charge. The deputies arrested Malito on the same felon in possession of a firearm charge and for being an alien in the possession of a firearm without a license, Reagan said.

All of the weapons were confiscated and placed into evidence, he said.

Engles said no diner employees saw the large pistol before the deputies arrived. The call was made by a customer they didn’t know.

“It’s not like he was scaring everybody. A couple of the servers are pretty upset and are worried about him,” said Engles, who didn’t know about the cache of weapons until told by a reporter.

“Wow,” she said. “We try to be accommodating. He’s never made any threats.”