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This day in history: Spokane officer testified he thought teen had gun when he shot him. He held a glove

Spokane police officer John D. Moore testified as a coroner's inquest that he thought Craig S. Jordan, 17, had a gun when he crashed through a glass storm door, The Spokesman-Review reported on Dec. 10, 1975. Moore shot and killed Jordan, who was holding a glove, not a gun. The newspaper also ran a photo of a group of women picketing outside the Spokane Chamber of Commerce where a group of legislators holding a reception. The women were protesting the high cost of daycare.  (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1975: When Craig S. Jordan, 17, crashed through a glass storm door, the thought that flashed through the mind of Spokane police officer John D. Moore, was, “Oh, God, he’s got a gun.”

That was the testimony of Moore during the coroner’s inquest into Jordan’s fatal shooting.

Moore was responding to a burglary call. Glass “was flying through the yard,” and Jordan’s “left hand was extended and I could see an object in his hand.”

That’s when Moore thought Jordan had a “small caliber handgun.” He testified “there was absolutely no doubt in my mind.” When Jordan ran, Moore fired and shot him in the back. When he knelt by the fallen Jordan, Moore saw that his left hand was holding a “large brown glove.”

There was no handgun.

More witnesses were scheduled to testify.

From 1925: The trial of ace safecracker Isadore (Izzy) Edelstein got off to a contentious start when prosecutor Charles Leavy objected heatedly to a remark made by Sen. Guy B. Groff, a defense attorney for Edelstein.

“He may be brilliant and he may get away with that stuff in the state Senate, but he can’t get away with it in the courtroom,” said Leavy.

Accused safecracker Isadore (Izzy) Edelstein was on trial in Spokane for the emptying of safes at the Paulsen Building three years earlier, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. The newspaper also reported that the Good Fellows estimated that 500 Spokane families would need assistance for Christmas dinners. (Spokesman-Review archives)
Accused safecracker Isadore (Izzy) Edelstein was on trial in Spokane for the emptying of safes at the Paulsen Building three years earlier, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. The newspaper also reported that the Good Fellows estimated that 500 Spokane families would need assistance for Christmas dinners. (Spokesman-Review archives)

Leavy was responding to Groff’s sarcastic remark after Leavy questioned a witness: “You didn’t get what you wanted, did you?”

Edelstein was accused of pulling off one of the biggest heists in the city’s history. Dozens of safes and vaults in the Paulsen Building were opened and emptied over a weekend. Edelstein was arrested in California after a three-year hunt.