Police shoot man trying to hit them, officials say

ELOIKA LAKE, Wash. – Spokane police shot a man early Friday while attempting to apprehend him at a home in northern Spokane County.

According to police Cpl. Tom Lee, officers shot 35-year-old Shawn A. Barton, a career criminal, when he tried to run them over about 5:30 a.m.

Barton is being treated at a Spokane hospital for two gunshot wounds – one to the arm and one to the hip, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Detective Dave Thornburg.

It is the third on-duty Spokane police shooting in the past two months.

Barton was wanted on felony warrants for escaping from community custody and attempting to elude police, as well as a misdemeanor warrant for driving with his license suspended, Lee said.

Details of the shooting are sketchy, but the Spokane SWAT team went to a home at 42803 N. Big Foot Lane – not too far from Highway 2 and just south of the Pend Oreille County line – about midnight to place it under surveillance for Barton. He showed up at 5:30 a.m. and confronted police, Lee said.

Spokane police had been pursuing Barton for at least two weeks as he moved from one friend’s house to another, Lee said.

Before Friday, the Spokane Police Department’s last contact with Barton was on April 25, when he eluded them after a high-speed chase.

Since then Secret Witness has offered a reward for information leading to Barton’s capture.

“He’s a convicted felon with a lengthy criminal record,” Lee said.

By the age of 30, Barton already had 48 criminal convictions and a 12-page rap sheet.

Past convictions include possession of a controlled substance, possession of stolen property, vehicle thefts and residential burglary.

Barton most recently pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and driving with a suspended license. He was sentenced to 34 days in jail and 12 months of probation, and he was given a $1,000 fine.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will investigate the shooting in keeping with Spokane police procedures for officer-involved shootings.

Thornburg said the investigation will take some time.

“We’re talking 20-something people in the SWAT team that our detectives are going to have to talk to. We have to go through all their equipment,” he said.

This is the fourth Spokane police shooting the Sheriff’s Office has been asked to investigate this year, including one involving off-duty Officer James “Jay” Olsen.

In February, Olsen shot a man he thought was stealing his truck, a crime for which the shooting victim, Shonto K. Pete, has since been charged.

Olsen, who was legally drunk at the time of the Peaceful Valley shooting, was charged in April with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment.

Sgt. Daniel Torok shot and killed transient Jerome Alford in late March after a violent confrontation. The Sheriff’s Office recently forwarded its investigation into that shooting to the Spokane County prosecutor’s office with no recommendation on charges.

Then earlier this month, Officer Todd W. Brownlee wounded Ryan Patterson in Hillyard after Patterson apparently shot at Brownlee from a gun hidden in his pocket. That shooting is still under investigation. Patterson is still hospitalized.