Car may hold clues in home-invasion robbery

Police are hoping fingerprints and DNA samples found on a car stolen in a home-invasion robbery will help them solve the crime. Officers found the 1997 Honda Civic stripped of its tires and wheels near West Gordon Avenue and West Glass Avenue in Spokane after it was stolen during a robbery at 2918 N. Hogan St., on June. 6. The victim said a man he knew only as “Nike” arrived at his home with two men, including one who was holding a sawed-off shotgun. The gunman yelled “Where’s the money? Where’s the drugs?” and trashed the apartment as Nike and the other man also brandished guns, according to a search warrant filed this week. Police used the warrant to swab the Honda for possible fingerprints or DNA. Another occupant of the apartment was pistol whipped. His roommate said he was robbed of $50, two laptops, a PlayStation 3 and stereo speakers. It’s unclear if the robbery is connected to other recent robberies, but the method of operation and suspects’ descriptions is somewhat similar to that of a take-over style robbery that occurred at McDonald’s, 4647 S. Regal St., on May 25. In that case, four men with ski masks targeted customers and employees with black semiautomatic handguns and a sawed-off, single-barrel shotgun. Detectives suspect that robbery may be connected to a take-over home-invasion robbery that occurred May 30 in the 4400 block of East 46th Avenue. Another robbery involving four men in ski masks occurred early on June 8 at the Zip Trip at 1523 W. 10th Ave., on the South Hill. Employees said the store was robbed at gunpoint by two white men and two Hispanic men wearing dark clothes and ski masks. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.