Spokane County Sheriff’s Office investigates connection between shooting caught on video and fatal drive-by two days later in Wandermere
A home surveillance video uploaded last week by a Logan neighborhood homeowner shows one gunshot fired from a vehicle that Spokane County sheriff’s deputies say may have been involved in a fatal drive-by shooting two days later.
The video was recorded at about 7:45 p.m. Friday, July 5, and posted to the website neighbors.ring.com, a platform run by the popular Ring home surveillance system.
It begins with what investigators say is a series of gunshots, though only one can be heard in the short 30-second clip. The video then shows a red-over-tan Ford Expedition stopped in the yard of a home on the north side of Courtland Avenue before quickly speeding away and fleeing the area of Lidgerwood Street and Courtland.
While nobody was shot in the Friday incident, Spokane police were able to locate two spent casings and two bullets, and Cpl. Mark Gregory, spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said it’s possible the incident is connected to a shooting two days later.
On Sunday, authorities responded to a fatal drive-by shooting in the Wandermere area at Wandermere Road near Elto Avenue, where they found 38-year-old Misty Hirsch suffering from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Her friend told investigators she and another friend were riding with Hirsch when a red-over-tan Ford Expedition pulled up alongside them. Deputies say a man in the driver’s seat fired two or three times, striking Hirsch once in the head. She was later pronounced dead at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Deputies on Monday arrested 31-year-old Jonathan Andersen in connection with the shooting after a high-speed chase through a residential neighborhood in north Spokane. He faces a charge of first-degree murder, in addition to two charges of attempted murder.
Andersen’s friend Katie Gendron, who was with him in the vehicle, said the victim approached their car minutes before the shooting at Lowe’s Home Improvement at 6606 N. Division St. and handed them an apparently stolen purse, which Hirsch apologized for having. She said Andersen followed them before pulling up alongside the vehicle and shooting three times from his handgun.
Gendron, according to a search warrant filed this week in Spokane County Superior Court, called 911 to report Andersen after learning on the news that Hirsch was killed in the shooting. She said she had met him weeks earlier and allowed him to live with her.
Andersen, court records show, was out of jail on an unlawful firearm possession charge from April. He’d recently served a seven-year sentence after being convicted of multiple robberies in Spokane County in 2012 – a conviction, according to Washington law, that prohibits him from owning a firearm.
Earlier Monday the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office urged the public to look out for that vehicle, which had been photographed in Wandermere days before the shooting as part of a separate investigation. The surveillance video appears to show that incident.
“Basically, we don’t know if the two incidents are connected,” Gregory said. “We are working those investigations.”
Because the earlier alleged shooting happened within city limits, the Spokane Police Department is heading the investigation until the sheriff’s office takes over, said Sgt. Terry Preuninger.
KHQ News reported neighbors believed the shooter in the Expedition was targeting a specific home. The home’s fence appears to show two bullet holes.