Suspect in killing of 13-year-old Gavin Looper arrested in Missoula

Police in Missoula have arrested a suspect in a drive-by shooting that killed 13-year-old Gavin Looper, a Peperzak Middle School student in Spokane.

Glen Burkey, 25, was apprehended Wednesday by police following a response by SWAT and the use of flash bang devices in the 2400 block of Clark Fork Lane in Missoula, according to a Missoula police news release. Agencies from Montana, Spokane and the FBI were all involved in his arrest.

Burkey surrendered and was taken into custody without incident, according to the release.

When he is brought back to Spokane, Burkey will face charges of a drive-by shooting, second-degree murder and second-degree assault, according to a previous news release from the Spokane Police Department.

Looper was shot in the head while he sat on a bed playing video games at his father’s friend’s north Spokane home on Saturday around 2:40 a.m., according to his mother, Renee Rogers. The bullet went through the back door, killing him, she said.

According to court records, security video in the neighborhood captured five gunshots. A man was seen running away from the home as six more shots are heard from a different area.

Police later found five shots were fired into the door Looper was behind, sitting on a bed playing video games.

A friend of Burkey told investigators they had been drinking most of the day on Saturday, the day of the shooting, court records say. When the friend went to Burkey’s home to pick him up to try and find cocaine, they all drove to the Bemiss neighborhood. He couldn’t remember anything else because he was intoxicated, court records say.

The friend heard the next morning that a teen was shot in the same neighborhood. The friend was told Burkey was being chased by another man down the street that night, shooting at him, according to court documents.

Two other witnesses said they were in the neighborhood at the time and dropped off their friend known as “Muggsy.” When they picked him up, he was running from gunfire down the street. He told the witnesses he was being ripped off, court documents say.

When another friend called Burkey and told him to turn himself in, Burkey claimed he “sounded like the police” and didn’t know what he was talking about before hanging up the phone.

Burkey was previously arrested at the same home on the 2800 block of East Heroy Avenue for a shooting, a witness told police. She “immediately” identified him due to his build and stature, court records say. He also was tried in 2017 on drive-by shooting charges, but the case was dismissed.

Gavin’s mother called the shooting “a one-off situation” with “the worst timing,” in an interview with The Spokesman-Review.

“I live a good, safe, healthy life. My kids aren’t involved in bad things,” Rogers said Tuesday. “My innocent boy getting caught in that is enraging me.”

This story is developing.