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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Boy hit by truck placed in coma

Police sketch (The Spokesman-Review)

The boy struck by a city dump truck while riding his non-motorized scooter was listed in critical but stable condition Friday and was in a medically-induced coma to keep him still, according to family.

Staff at Sacred Heart Medical Center told 9-year-old Zachary Donovan’s family he’ll need to stay flat on his back for at least six weeks as he starts to heal and doctors evaluate how his body responded to the massive internal bleeding and trauma. The boy suffered a crushed pelvis, and doctors said they can’t guarantee he’ll walk again, according to Mary King, the boy’s great-aunt.

Police think a girl may have been playing with Donovan, a student at Hutton Elementary School, when a truck driven by city of Spokane employee Charlie Hanshaw, 22, of Spokane, struck him. Police haven’t found her and would like anyone who saw the collision, which occurred about 2 p.m. Wednesday near D Street and North Loop Avenue, to call (509) 835-4567.

“We all continue to pray for our little Zach as is he loved so much by so many,” King wrote in an e-mail.

Meghann M. Cuniff

Police seek robbery suspect

Law-enforcement agencies released a sketch Friday that they hope will lead them to a suspect in a string of pharmacy robberies.

The robberies in Coeur d’Alene, Spokane and Spokane Valley may be related, and anti-crime groups are offering rewards for information leading to an arrest. In each case, a thin man in his early to mid-20s demanded OxyContin.

On Aug. 25, a man fled the Hayden Rite Aid on Prairie Avenue with more than 600 pills. Three days later, a man entered the Safeway on Fourth Avenue in Coeur d’Alene, handed the pharmacist a note demanding OxyContin, then fled with a bottle of the pills.

Spokane police describe the robber as a white man in his early to mid 20s, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, and “very thin and gaunt looking with a darker complexion.” The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department describes him as 5-foot-11 with a thin build.

He was wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt with a black Under Armor design on the front, along with a white T-shirt, dark pants and a black knit stocking cap.

Along with a $5,000 reward from Rite Aid, Kootenai County’s Secret Witness program and CrimeStoppers of the Inland Northwest are offering rewards.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (509) 242-TIPS, Secret Witness at (208) 667-2111, or 911.

Meghann M. Cuniff