Man sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for fatally shooting 28-year-old man in Spokane

A 58-year-old man who used a racial slur during an argument with a Black man and five hours later shot and killed him from his van before speeding away will spend 12 years in prison for manslaughter.

Steven B. Bronowski pleaded guilty earlier this month to first-degree manslaughter in the 2022 death of 28-year-old Ammar Johnson in a lower South Hill parking lot. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel then handed down the 149-month sentence, which included a 24-month deadly weapon enhancement.

Spokane police officers were dispatched at about 5:15 a.m. March 2 to the shooting at Johnson’s apartment, 1123 W. Seventh Ave., according to court documents. There, officers found Johnson dead with a gunshot wound to the head and lying by a sliding glass doorway that led to the deck.

A witness told police he was with Johnson in the early morning hours of March 2 when Johnson and a man, later identified as Bronowski, were arguing in the parking lot outside Johnson’s apartment. The witness said in documents Bronowski was drinking Coors Light beer.

The witness told police he was unsure what the men were arguing about, but heard Bronowski call Johnson the N-word. The witness convinced Johnson to end the dispute and return to his apartment.

A woman who lives at the apartment complex told police Bronowski, who she had known for more than 25 years, visited her at about 12:30 a.m. March 2, court records say. She said he parked his dark blue van in her assigned parking spot as he normally does.

She told police Bronowski was extremely upset when he visited her, saying he had just been in an argument over parking spaces in the lot. She said she had to tell Bronowski several times to calm down, but he continued to be angry over the interaction with the two men, documents say.

Rickey Davis, the other victim in this case, told police he arrived at Johnson’s apartment at about 5 a.m., and the two talked about going onto the apartment deck to smoke a cigarette.

As Johnson opened the sliding glass door to the deck, Davis heard a loud sound and saw a dark-colored van in the parking lot area, according to documents.

Davis saw a hand protruding from the driver’s window of the van and heard a second loud sound. He said Johnson fell to the floor, and he realized Johnson had been shot, Davis told police.

Davis said he saw the van drive away.

The woman who was with Bronowski that morning told police she heard two gunshots within a few minutes of Bronowski leaving her apartment. She said she assumed Bronowski fired his gun into the air as he left because he was still upset over the parking argument.

Bronowski was arrested in Coeur d’Alene more than two weeks after the shooting for an unrelated crime, documents say.

Bronowski admitted in a recorded Kootenai County Jail phone call to being at the Seventh Avenue apartment complex parking lot, getting into a confrontation with two Black men and using a racial slur when interacting with the men, according to court records.

During several of the recorded conversations, he admitted his involvement in the homicide of Johnson and said he acted in self-defense, documents say. He also described a Black man being near Johnson at the time of the shooting, which is consistent with the presence of Davis at the scene and the basis for the assault plea.

Bronowski will receive credit for his roughly 2½ years of time served and will serve three years of probation after he is released from prison.