Altercation between friends results in stabbing death

Clues are still being sought as to why two lifelong friends squared off in a fight Thursday morning that left one of them dead and the other in a hospital with serious cuts.

Spokane police were summoned about 6:30 a.m. to 3010 N. Stone St., Apt. 1, where emergency crews had tried to save the life of 26-year-old Joab N. Cheer. He was pronounced dead at a Spokane-area hospital.

The other man, 23-year-old Waptisse Wilder, suffered several cuts from a broken beer bottle but is expected to fully recover, Detective Don Giese said.

Investigators don’t yet have a motive and were waiting for two witnesses, described as highly intoxicated, to sober up before getting better details about how the fight took place, Giese said.

Investigators found a butterfly knife they believe was used in the stabbing in the gutter across the street from the apartment building, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

Wilder was treated for his injuries, then interviewed by detectives and released pending further investigation, Cottam said.

A longtime acquaintance of both men, 26-year-old Andrew Jack, lives above the apartment where the fight took place. He described the stabbing death as a tragedy between close friends.

All three young men moved to Spokane together from the Colville Indian Reservation, where they were raised, Jack said.

Both Cheer and Wilder had been attending Spokane Community College. Cheer was studying culinary arts and hoped someday to open his own restaurant. Wilder wanted to become a lawyer, Jack said.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Jack said outside the apartment complex surrounded by police tape and investigators. “I have good memories with both of them.”

Detectives Giese and Kip Hollenbeck said another man, a woman and a 5-year-old girl were inside the apartment at the time of the altercation. But both adults were too intoxicated to give a good description of exactly what happened, they said.

Officers secured the apartment, and detectives waited several hours for a search warrant to go inside, Giese said.

Myrtle Jack, 65, who is Andrew Jack’s mother, was staying with her son when she awoke to noise outside.

“All of the sudden, I hear sirens,” she said. “I woke my son up and told him the apartment was being surrounded by police.”

Wilder and Cheer had come late Wednesday night to Jack’s apartment.

“I told them they couldn’t come in. I don’t want them drinking around my grandkids,” Myrtle Jack said. “That was around midnight.”

When Andrew Jack came outside, he saw Cheer’s girlfriend speaking to a female police officer. Wilder, who goes by “Wappy,” was sitting on the adjacent staircase. Jack spoke briefly with Wilder.

“It was an alcohol-related incident,” Jack said. “From what I can tell, it started as a domestic violence situation.”

Wilder apparently stepped between Cheer and his girlfriend and suffered a beating that left his entire face swollen, Jack said. The other man in the apartment apparently was passed out on the couch.

Detectives said they didn’t have enough information to determine whether a crime was committed or whether the stabbing was committed in self-defense.

Cheer and his girlfriend had a child together, Jack said.

“We grew up together. We went to high school together. We all had big plans together,” Jack said. “But something like this happens, and it’s like blowing dust in the wind. It’s sad.”