Man shot by Spokane police at Shadle Walmart identified

A man shot and killed by two Spokane Police officers in the Shadle Walmart parking lot Wednesday has been identified as by the Spokane County medical examiner as 34-year-old Chad W. Cochell.

Cochell was driving a white Ford Explorer that had been violently stolen Monday morning in northeast Spokane when he was shot by police.

The vehicle’s owner, who has not yet been identified by authorities, was shot twice during the theft. He remains in hospitalized, according to police.

On Wednesday evening, officers spotted the vehicle in the Walmart parking lot just before 5 p.m., police Chief Craig Meidl told reporters in a conference following the shooting.

As officers conducted surveillance, they noted multiple people – “two, maybe three” – around the vehicle, Meidl said.

While waiting for backup to arrive, the Explorer began to move, Meidl said. Determining that the vehicle and driver posed a threat to the public, the officers moved in, boxing off the vehicle’s path, he said.

Police shouted orders for the occupants to get out of the vehicle, and a woman exited. The driver did not comply, however. Two police officers opened fire and he was shot, the police chief said.

The driver, later identified as Cochell, was armed at the time of the shooting, according to police.

Witnesses described officers attempting to perform life-saving measures immediately after the incident.

The attempts were unsuccessful, however. According to the Spokane Medical Examiners Office, Cochell succumbed to rifle and shotgun wounds to his chest and upper extremities.

Cochell was a Spokane resident, according to his Facebook page, and had an extensive criminal history in Spokane County and elsewhere in the region.

In October 2016, Cochell was sentenced to 12 months in prison – of which he served 125 days – after pleading guilty to reckless driving and attempting to elude police.

In 2014, Cochell pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess a controlled substance and was sentenced to 46 days in jail.

In 2010, Cochell was sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating a protection order. He also to plead guilty second-degree identity theft, possession of a controlled substance, and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 32 days in jail.

In 2009, Cochell was sentenced to 17 days in jail for domestic violence and assault.

Cochell was also arrested in 2011 in Fairview, Oregon being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The theft of the Ford Explorer occurred Tuesday near the 8200 block of North Crestline – roughly five miles from the site of Wednesday’s officer-involved shooting – just before noon, according to police.