County settles suit with couple hit by police car
Spokane County settled a lawsuit last week with a Mead couple whose vehicle was rear-ended by a Spokane County sheriff’s sergeant’s car in 2004.
Steven and Carla Blasier were stopped on the Interstate 90 eastbound off-ramp at Maple Street on Dec. 15, 2004, when their Ford Escort was hit by Sgt. David Fray, who was driving an unmarked sheriff’s Crown Victoria. The Escort was pushed into a car driven by a Colville woman.
County commissioners voted unanimously to pay the Blasiers $52,750. The county previously paid about $3,000 of the Blasiers’ medical bills, said their attorney Kenneth J. Albrecht.
Albrecht said the settlement will pay about $7,000 in medical bills that hadn’t been covered by the county. The rest of the money was to compensate them for pain and suffering, he said.
The crash was investigated by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Fray was traveling as fast as 43 mph at the time of impact, according to an investigative report by Detective Tom Henderson. There were no marks on the pavement to indicate Fray had braked, Henderson wrote. Fray was not cited in the crash.
Cheney
Fire damages home
A Cheney home was heavily damaged by a fire about 6:50 p.m. Monday. The owner blamed the blaze on heat tape he had applied to water pipes in the garage to keep them from freezing.
Cheney Fire Chief Mike Winters said the fire at 1303 Second St. was mostly confined to the garage, but there was “pretty significant” heat and smoke damage in the trilevel house itself. The owner was at home when the fire broke out, but no one was injured.
Winters said the home was being renovated, and the garage was packed with “everything from carpet to combustible metals like magnesium.”
spokane
Man jailed in July assault
A Secret Witness target who police say has a gang name of “Loonie” has been arrested in connection with a July 19 stabbing and robbery in downtown Spokane.
John Paul “Loonie” Gullingsrud, 19, was arrested Friday and remained in the county jail Monday in lieu of $300,000 bail.
Gullingsrud was being held on suspicion of first-degree assault and first-degree robbery in the incident at a skateboard park at Third Avenue and McClellan Street.
Witnesses said Gullingsrud stole Wakan Zion Burrows’ backpack, containing $40 to $50 and new skating clothes, and stabbed Burrows in the chest and side with a 6-inch knife when Burrows objected, according to court documents.
Police found the backpack behind the House of Charity, 32 W. Pacific Ave., but couldn’t locate Gullingsrud. The nonprofit Secret Witness organization offered a reward for information leading to his capture.
In addition to the skate park assault and robbery charges, Gullingsrud was being held Monday on suspicion of two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of attempted first-degree kidnapping, first-degree trafficking in stolen property and forgery. Details on the additional charges were not immediately available.
Man arrested in stabbing
A man accused of stabbing his drinking companion in the chest early Saturday morning was being held Monday in the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of first-degree assault.
Bail was set at $10,000 for 21-year-old Mario Alejandro Colville.
According to District Court documents, Colville stabbed Chris Hernandez in the chest with a folding knife when the two got into a drunken fight at 864 S. Sherman St.
A police officer said Colville claimed, when he was arrested about an hour and 20 minutes later at 1100 W. Broadway Ave., that Hernandez attacked him and ran into his knife.
The officer said Hernandez was taken to a hospital in unstable condition, but no information on Hernandez’s condition was available Monday.
Injured hiker rescued
Spokane firefighters rescued an injured hiker Monday from a steep hillside near 29th Avenue and High Drive.
The woman was about 200 feet from the roadway on an extreme slope when she suffered an unspecified injury that prevented her from climbing back up to safety, said Spokane Fire’s Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer. Ropes and a rigid stretcher were used to pull the 62-year-old hiker to safety.
The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, Schaeffer said.
Firefighters responded about 2 p.m., Schaeffer said. Crews had hiked nearly a mile to the injured woman to begin treatment when they realized special equipment was needed to remove her from the slope.
Dog helps nab suspect
Spokane police arrested a 19-year-old suspect in an armed robbery Monday with help from a police dog who tracked the man for five blocks.
Daniel J. Carter was booked into jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery after a clerk at the Grocery Boys store, 3430 N. Crestline St., identified him as the man who pulled a knife on him in a beer robbery about 7:45 p.m.
Officer William Hager said the 49-year-old clerk had chased down two men who ran east on Courtland Avenue with beer stolen from the store. The clerk told the officer the men dropped the beer, and he was about to retrieve it when Carter pulled a knife and told him to leave it.
The clerk returned to the store and called police, who cordoned off the area and brought in a police dog named Bear.
Compiled from staff reports