Man shot, killed near Sacred Heart was stalked, ambushed, police say

The man accused of shooting and killing 38-year-old Derick Shafer stalked and moved “into an ambush position” to shoot Shafer, who was seated in his car, last week near Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, according to detectives in court documents.

Police located the suspect, 32-year-old Andre D. Moore, sleeping Thursday in the Browne Street viaduct, between Sprague and Pacific avenues, and arrested him on suspicion of first-degree murder four days after the killing, police wrote. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and then booked into the Spokane County Jail early Friday morning.

Moore remained in jail Monday night after Spokane County Superior Court Commissioner Jerry Scharosch maintained Moore’s bond Monday afternoon at $1 million.

Ashley Smith, Shafer’s sister, choked back tears during Monday’s court appearance, saying the courts let her down.

Moore, a three-time felon convicted of theft and burglary, is facing an unlawful possession of a firearm charge after officers on Aug. 24 found him in possession of a 9 mm pistol while arresting him on the eastern edge of downtown for an arrest warrant for theft, according to court records.

Moore is not allowed to have a gun because he’s a felon. Since the August arrest, Moore has been released twice from jail on his own recognizance in relation to the gun charge, something that’s hard for Smith and her family to grapple with.

“I feel like we have been let down by the justice system, because he ultimately took my brother’s life 19 days later,” Smith said after Monday’s court hearing. “I think that’s insane. I get giving him a chance once maybe, but then to give him another chance on it and then he goes and kills someone, I think that’s a big reality check.”

Since the summer arrest, Moore was released from jail, but then failed to report to pretrial services, so an arrest warrant was issued, according to court records. He was arrested Sept. 22 on that warrant and then immediately released again.

An officer who arrested him in August called Moore a “known downtown criminal” who the officer had arrested several times.

Smith told the judge that Moore, who wore a yellow Spokane County Jail jumpsuit Monday, acted like he didn’t care, given his courtroom demeanor.

“He’s devastated our lives,” she said.

A couple family members of Shafer on Monday wore black T-shirts with a photo of Shafer, his name and his birth and death dates on the front. The top of the shirt says, “A PIECE OF MY HEART LIVES IN heaven.” A Bible verse is printed on the back of the shirt.

According to court documents, Shafer was shot at 12:48 a.m. Oct. 12 next to the Hampton Inn & Suites, 675 S. McClellan St.

Two witnesses, who were in the same car driving to the hotel, told police they heard three or four gunshots as they turned from Sixth Avenue onto McClellan. The witness continued driving south on McClellan and saw a man standing next to a car, directly to the south of the hotel driveway entrance. The witness said he noticed a large amount of broken glass next to the car. A man standing next to the vehicle then walked away “into the darkness” of the night. The man was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with white print on it, the witnesses told police.

Police found several spent shell casings on the ground near the vehicle.

Hotel surveillance footage shows Shafer parking outside the hotel about 12:45 a.m. in his silver 2011 Hyundai Sonata. Three minutes later, Moore, dressed in an Adidas sweatshirt, is seen walking out of the same alley where Shafer had driven from. He walks to Shafer’s Sonata, pulls out a handgun and fires multiple shots into the vehicle. Moore then walks slowly back toward the alley and only starts to walk briskly when another vehicle is seen traveling south on McClellan.

Nearly three hours earlier, video surveillance showed Shafer’s car parking in a parking lot and a person, believed to be Moore, walking and then lingering in the area before leaving. Detectives wrote the person was wearing clothes that matched what Moore was wearing at the time of the shooting.

Surveillance from the Ridpath Club Apartments showed Moore talking to another man outside the downtown Spokane apartments about 45 minutes before the shooting. Moore was wearing the same Adidas sweatshirt and had a tattoo under his right eye.

Detectives contacted the man speaking with Moore at his Ridpath apartment unit. The Ridpath resident told police the man he was talking to was “Mac,” later identified as Moore. He said Moore seemed out of sorts on the night he spoke to him in front of the apartment.

Shafer’s ex-girlfriend told police she and her current boyfriend know Moore “from the streets.”

She said she, her boyfriend and Moore were in the downtown area and walked back to her apartment, about one block from the shooting, hours before it happened. The trio hung out for a while, and about three hours before the shooting, Shafer came to her apartment in his vehicle, honking outside to draw her attention.

She said Shafer needed drugs, so she gave him some. She didn’t know where Shafer went after she left him outside.

Another man interviewed by police said he was also at the woman’s apartment at that time and heard honking. The man said he heard the woman’s boyfriend say something like he was going to “pop him” if he “keeps that up.” He said the boyfriend and Shafer have been fighting over the woman.

That man said he last saw the boyfriend that night wearing all black with a black face covering. The next day, he heard about Shafer’s killing and thought the boyfriend could be responsible.

Meanwhile, the girlfriend told police Moore was preparing to leave the apartment at about 10 p.m. - less than three hours before the shooting.

The woman gave differing accounts about leaving the apartment with her boyfriend and possibly another man when they heard the gunshots go off hours later just down the street, police said. She said they heard on the police scanner that Shafer was the one who was shot and that they fled from the apartment fearing the police would think they had something to do with it.

Moore returned to the apartment hours after the shooting and appeared “quiet,” the woman said. She recalled Moore telling her boyfriend he was tired and hungry. She said her boyfriend and Moore talked about the gunshots, and her boyfriend told Moore to leave and that he was an “idiot.” She said her boyfriend told her Moore shot Shafer.

She denied that she or her boyfriend asked Moore to kill Shafer.

Search warrant documents filed last week in Spokane County Superior Court show police are investigating the boyfriend, but it does not appear he has been charged.

In addition to the $1 million bond, Judge Scharosch imposed a $50,000 bond for Moore’s unlawful possession of a firearm charge.

Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Jonathan Degen said he will have an updated probable cause affidavit and add another firearm charge at Moore’s arraignment, scheduled for Thursday. Trial for his current firearm charge is set for December.