Mother says son was victim
Man arrested in drive-through melee
The mother of a young man arrested for assaulting a woman in the drive-through of a Spokane Valley restaurant said Thursday that her son was the victim and blames the woman with a cut lip for causing the situation.
Candy Scott said her 18-year-old son, Gary W. Scott, was protecting his mother when he got out of the car she was driving to confront the driver behind them at Jack in the Box at 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Candy Scott added that the woman suffered a cut lip only after she rammed her son with her car and drove away with him on the roof.
“I’m not saying him getting out of the car at the drive-through was right,” Candy Scott said. “But what she did was vigilante justice by running him down with her vehicle right in front of my eyes.”
The Spokane Valley Police Department told a different story. Gary Scott has been charged with second-degree malicious mischief and fourth-degree assault.
The dispute began when the woman honked her horn at the Scotts and two friends from Florida as they read the menu at Jack in the Box, 1505 N. Pines Road.
Candy Scott said her son, who had been drinking alcohol that night, got out of the car and confronted the driver.
Asked why her son punched the woman, Candy Scott replied: “Because she was honking and cussing at us.”
Scott later said she thought the driver behind them was a man. “The reason he got out was … because he thought the man was getting hostile with us. (My son) was defending his mother.”
But police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said the female driver grabbed Gary Scott’s shirt and ripped it after she was assaulted. Candy Scott said her son tore his shirt off himself.
Once her inebriated son got back into her car, Candy Scott said she drove away without getting her food order. The woman in the car behind them followed.
“I didn’t want whoever this was in the car to be following us to our home so I pulled over and I called 911,” Scott said.
Her son got out and threw up because of how much he had to drink earlier in the night, Scott said.
“That’s when she came around the side of the car and hit my son,” Scott said. “That’s how her windshield got broke is when my son flew up on the hood. He does admit that when she was driving down the road at 60 mph … he may have hit her in the face trying to get her to stop.”
The cars collided before officers arrived on scene. Gary Scott ran away; officers caught him several blocks away.
“Most victims don’t run from police,” Reagan said.
Asked why her son ran, Candy Scott said: “He’s not this kid they painted him to be. He ran because he just got hit by a car, was under the influence of alcohol and had a warrant for his arrest for driving on a suspended license.”
She said her son was treated for a broken ankle, a concussion, bruised ribs and multiple cuts and bruises. She says Spokane Valley officers denied medical treatment to her son.
Reagan said Gary Scott was in jail from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and never complained of injuries.
Cpl. Shannon McGillis said in her report that Candy Scott’s explanation of the events didn’t fit the damage to the vehicles, Reagan said.