Spokane police arrest suspect after standoff at South Hill apartment complex

Spokane police arrested a man with a warrant related to a Friday night domestic violence incident on Saturday afternoon, after an hourslong standoff at a South Hill apartment complex.

Police received a call just before 2 a.m. from a woman who said she had been choked by her boyfriend and determined they had probable cause to arrest Ryan F. Whyte, 31, on a felony domestic violence assault charge, according to Spokane Police Cpl. Teresa Fuller.

Officers spent the next several hours trying to locate Whyte before an off-duty police officer saw him enter an apartment at the Beaumont & Biltmore Apartments on 53rd Avenue and Regal Street around 8:30 a.m., according to Fuller.

Police then verified Whyte was by himself in the apartment. Officers became engaged in a standoff just before 9 a.m., when they tried to call Whyte out of the building and he barricaded himself inside a room, Fuller said.

Whyte had a history of being armed and making threats to officers, Fuller said. Officers evacuated some of the nearby apartments as a precaution and blocked off 53rd Avenue to Crestline Street.

When police forced entry into man’s room around 1 p.m., he cooperated and was taken into custody, according to Fuller.