Police arrest two students accused in gun for marijuana swap, forcing Central Valley lockout

Central Valley High School went into a lockout on Wednesday after administrators received a tip that a student had a pistol.

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies arrested three people, two of them juveniles, following the lockout, according to a news release from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

School administrators received the tip at about 10:20 a.m. from a student who said another student had brought the gun to school to trade for marijuana, but the suspect had left the school.

Administrators then put the school on lockout while they and the sheriff’s deputies investigated the tip. In a lockout, students are not allowed to go outside and no one outside of the school is allowed to enter the buildings.

Deputies arrested a suspect 15 minutes later at a residence in the 400 block of North Sommer Road in Spokane Valley and recovered a pistol. Deputies also arrested another juvenile in connection to an unrelated warrant at the residence.

Eighteen-year-old Kenski Riten Biten, who has a criminal record and is not allowed to posses a gun, was arrested at the school, according to the news release. Biten’s first name is spelled “Kinski” in the Spokane County Jail records online.

Deputies learned that the pistol was stolen in a vehicle-prowling crime in August, according to the news release.

Biten faces charges including second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, possessing a dangerous weapon on school facilities, unlawful possession of a pistol (18 to 21 years of age) and possession of a stolen firearm.

The juvenile who was involved with the gun trade was arrested and sent to Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center.