Two arrested after fight results in gunshot in north Spokane

Spokane police arrested two men after a fight resulted in a shooting in northwest Spokane last week.

Police arrested Robert D. Springstead, 41, and Ronald L. Jewett, 48, after finding them hiding less than a mile away.

Police were dispatched to a report of shots fired near North Lincoln Street and West Augusta Avenue that afternoon. Video footage showed two men park a vehicle in an alley near 818 W. Spofford Ave. and then confront two “transients” at about 12:50 p.m., according to court documents.

About five minutes after parking the vehicle, Springstead accused the two of breaking into his residence and stealing before threatening to kill them, the court document said. A gunshot is captured in the surveillance recording before the two men drive off.

Police located the vehicle Springstead and Jewett were driving at 2303 N. Washington St., although it was unoccupied. Multiple police officers responded to the scene and they found the two men in a U-Haul truck parked nearby with other people inside of it.

Speaking to the Spokesman-Review from the Spokane County Jail, Springstead said the issue began the night before when the owner of a residence he was renting at, 1106 W. Spofford Ave., demanded that he, Jewett, and other residents pack up their belongings and leave. Springstead said he was asleep in his car that night nearby when someone was reportedly stealing property from the residence, he said.

Springstead woke up the next morning and asked another acquaintance in a nearby parking lot about whether his property was stolen, he said. Jewett and a third man were discussing a similar matter with another person nearby, he said. That’s when he said he heard a gunshot about 15 feet behind him. Springstead said he did not have a gun on him during the incident.

He and Jewett fled from the area and drove in a vehicle and went to the U-haul, which he had been using to store some of his property while looking for a new place to live, he said.

“I don’t see why I’m being locked up when I just asked someone if they stole my property from me,” he said. “Why did I go to jail for this?”

Jewett and Springstead booked into the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of first-degree assault, drive-by shooting and harassment last week. The other man was not arrested or identified.

Springstead’s criminal history in Spokane County includes a first-degree robbery conviction from 2008 and a second-degree assault plea from 2001. Jewett did not have any other criminal records available in Spokane County.

Jewett was released on his own recognizance the following day. Springstead remains in jail on $100,000 bond.