Carjacking in Liberty Lake
In her first few moments of freedom after a two-month stay at Sacred Heart Medical Center for lupus treatment, a Newman Lake woman and her daughter were forced out of their SUV Thursday night by a carjacker holding a handgun.
Colleen Grassman and her daughter, LeAnne, were at the Zip Trip store in Liberty Lake about 9:15 p.m. when an armed man leaned into the driver’s side window of the family’s 1997 Chevrolet Blazer and told the two to get out.
“I don’t know if it was a real gun or a toy gun, but we did what he said and that was that,” Grassman said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “I’m still kind of shaken.”
Liberty Lake police are looking for the white Blazer, with a license plate reading 009-TVC, said Chief Brian Asmus. On Friday afternoon, the Police Department had no leads on a suspect or a location for thevehicle.
Grassman calmly recounted the story of her hectic night. Her husband pulled into the convenience store after the family had stopped at the drugstore to get Grassman’s prescriptions. The family needed milk, and Grassman’s husband, Mark, was inside shopping.
“As I was turning to talk to my daughter, he came out of nowhere,” she said.
The guy ordered her: “Get out. I have a gun. Get out.” He was in his late teens or early 20s, about 5 feet 5 inches tall and thin.
Grassman said she didn’t have much time to react, just enough time to grab her 7-year-old daughter and her prescription pills and get out.
The mother stumbled as she exited the vehicle, still weak from the hospital stay. The man sped off in the Blazer, driving through the Albertsons parking lot, and then turned east on Country Vista Drive. Mark Grassman, an electrician, ran after the SUV as far as he could but couldn’t catch up.
There were some things inside the Blazer, such as some of LeAnne’s clothes and a new backpack, but at the time back-to-school items weren’t high on Colleen Grassman’s mind.
“I was more concerned with my daughter and myself,” she said.
The SUV is still missing, and investigators are reviewing nearby surveillance videos to see whether anyone else might be involved, Asmus said. Some witnesses have come forward saying they saw the carjacking suspect get out of a red compact car before he approached the Blazer. Thursday night, officers found a red Honda on Hodges Road near Sprague Avenue that had been stolen and then apparently abandoned, Asmus said.
This is the first carjacking the city of Liberty Lake has seen, Asmus said.
Back at home, the Grassmans are down to Mark Grassman’s company truck. LeAnne was so scared Thursday night she slept with her mom on the couch. Colleen Grassman’s message to the man who took the family’s Blazer is simple:
“Just give me my car back,” she said.