Man accused of killing ex-girlfriend day after police respond to woman’s apartment for domestic call

Police found a woman dead in her Spokane apartment of a suspected homicide Thursday night, the day after officers responded to the residence over an incident with her ex-boyfriend.

Officers arrested the ex, Jean P. Kirkpatrick, 45, later Thursday on suspicion of second-degree murder, according to court documents.

Police performed a welfare check on Fatimah Alghazwi shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday at 509 W. Sinto Ave. after a Spokane day care center called police saying she did not pick up her two children, 3 and 7, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Friday in District Court.

Officers discovered Alghazwi dead with apparent knife wounds. Court documents did not say her age.

An officer wrote in court documents that he responded to Alghazwi’s apartment the day before because Kirkpatrick, who lives at a different apartment at the complex, reportedly pushed his way into her unit.

Alghazwi told police she let Kirkpatrick inside after he knocked on the door. They argued and he took a bottle of rum, she told police.

She said she recently broke up with Kirkpatrick, but he continued to harass her by knocking on her door. The officer advised Alghazwi about getting a no-contact order against Kirkpatrick before trying to contact Kirkpatrick at his apartment.

The same officer was dispatched to Alghazwi’s apartment Thursday night for the welfare check. The officer wrote that no one answered the door, and that surveillance footage from the apartment complex showed Alghazwi entering her apartment about two hours earlier .

The officer eventually used a key fob to enter the residence and found Alghazwi lying face down on the floor with a pool of blood around her head. Medics declared Alghazwi dead when they arrived.

Security cameras showed Kirkpatrick arguing with Alghazwi around 4:30 p.m. outside her front door before he “hip-checked his way” into her apartment, according to documents. Kirkpatrick is shown on the camera system around 5:05 p.m. leaving her apartment and entering his own.

He then walked back into Alghazwi’s apartment for about 30 seconds before returning to his apartment again.

Kirkpatrick left the apartment complex around 5:15 p.m. with a black bag and drove away in his Jeep Grand Cherokee, documents say. Officers detained Kirkpatrick outside Sunset Grocery in Browne’s Addition.

A detective wrote that Kirkpatrick appeared “highly inebriated and the odor of intoxicants was extreme” while speaking with Kirkpatrick in an interview room. Kirkpatrick told police he was with Alghazwi earlier that evening but denied killing her.

Kirkpatrick appeared in Spokane County District Court Friday and remained in the Spokane County Jail Friday night in lieu of a $1 million bond.

Kirkpatrick has 11 felony convictions, including several thefts, according to a Spokane police news release.

In the past month, Kirkpatrick was convicted of two misdemeanors – a domestic violence no-contact order violation and interfering with a domestic violence report.

Police continue to investigate.