100 years ago in Spokane: Bank robbers shoot grocer

From our archive, 100 years ago

Two men attempted a brazen and bloody holdup of the Union Park Bank in Spokane, 2002 E. Sprague.

Witnesses said the two unmasked robbers, “a white man and a Negro,” entered and commanded the cashier and a customer to “throw up their hands.” The bank alarm went off, and Frank Magart, a grocer from next door, rushed into the bank with a drawn pistol and fired a shot at the robbers. One of the robbers then “replied with a fusillade of shots,” hitting Magart three times, including two in the arm. He was critically injured.

The two robbers then fled on foot. Unfortunately for them, a jitney driver named Frank Bell was passing the bank at the time. He saw the men running from the bank. Bell grabbed his .22 revolver and jumped out of his cab. He trailed the robbers down the street, firing continuously. Bell apparently did not hit them, but he was able to show police where the two men had taken refuge: in a barn, a few blocks from the bank.

Police, with drawn revolvers, cautiously entered the barn and made their way to the loft. They found William Tucker, aka Charles Martin, and Steve Snyder hiding in the hay. The men offered no resistance and police took a .44 revolver from Tucker.

The two men were jailed and arraigned, yet refused to enter pleas. In a jailhouse interview, Snyder professed his innocence, if not entirely convincingly. Snyder claimed “we just went in the bank for some fun.” As for the people in the bank, “they just shook like leaves … it certainly was funny the way they acted.”

Tucker told police he had a revolver, but it was broken and just clicked three times.

Doctors expressed hope that Magart might recover from his wounds.