Dozens of cars vandalized on North Side; 5 arrested

Vandals hit dozens of cars in north Spokane early Wednesday, bashing out windows, knocking off mirrors and denting panels, apparently with a baseball bat.

Vehicles were damaged across the North Side, from Hillyard to Shadle Park.

Police arrested five people in connection with the crime spree after a victim followed the suspects’ car and reported it to the police.

According to Spokane police Officer Glenn Bartlett, a man saw his vehicle being vandalized and followed the five suspects, relaying their location to police.

Police then intercepted them near Northwest Boulevard and Ash Street and saw an aluminum bat in the car.

Brandon L. Gore, 20, and 18-year-olds Christopher L. Schmidt and James E. Prucopio were charged with first-degree malicious mischief, as were a 17-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy.

“There was no motive for it. They just decided they were going to randomly damage vehicles,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett said the first hit was at Decatur Avenue and Market Street. The vandals then moved along to the 2300 block of East Diamond Avenue, the 1800 block of East Princeton Avenue, the 200 block of East Liberty Avenue, the 3900 block of West Wellesley Avenue and the 3100 block of West Walton Avenue.

One of the cars badly damaged was parked across from the Hillyard skate park. The car’s owner is an employee at the neighboring business, The Fence Man.

Fence Man Manager Jeff Hayward said that some of the teens who use the skate park are troublemakers who vandalize park property and leave litter.

“All they do is come and beat the hell out of everything,” Hayward said. “They will smash trash cans as flat as a pancake.”

Hayward said that most of the park’s users don’t cause trouble, but those who misbehave create real problems.

Police were only able to locate about 10 vandalized cars, even though the suspects said that they damaged as many as 30 or 40.

“We know there’s more damage. It’s just trying to find the victims,” Bartlett said.

Police are asking victims of the vandalism spree to call them at (509) 532-9266.