15-year-old boy shot dead in Spokane Valley apartment complex

A 15-year-old boy was shot dead outside an apartment in Spokane Valley late Monday night.

The Spokane Valley Sheriff’s MPs were called to a residential complex on the 9700 block of E. Sixth Avenue at around 10:50 p.m. after reports of multiple shots, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

MPs found the boy with life-threatening gunshot wounds and provided medical assistance, the sheriff’s office said. Firemen from the Spokane Valley and paramedics from American Medical Response arrived, but the victim died on the spot shortly after.

MPs said a K9 unit, helicopter and serious crime detectives had been called in for assistance.

Jill Kennedy, a resident of a nearby apartment complex, said she heard a “big boom” that sounded like a shotgun or other large weapon going off about three times late Monday night.

The sound scared her dog, Butters, Kennedy recalled.

The Spokane Valley neighborhood where Kennedy lives and the shooting took place has low-income apartment complexes alongside houses and other residential buildings.

“In general, it’s a safe neighborhood,” said Kennedy. “They are good families.”

Kennedy said she lived in low-income housing when her two sons were young and the complex where the shooting took place appears to be well managed.

“In terms of low-income family housing, this is some of the best I’ve seen,” said Kennedy.

Initial information suggests the victim went outside to meet someone or a few people and was shot dead, according to the sheriff’s office. Witnesses told MPs they saw a person in dark clothes run away from the scene.

Detectives believe the victim knew the shooter or shooters and that the victim may have been involved in an ongoing conflict with multiple people.

By Tuesday morning, the investigators had received a search warrant for another apartment in the complex, said tenant Joni Martin.

When the children walked to the bus stop with their backpacks, a forensic vehicle pulled up on the side of the road.

Martin said police called her around 8 a.m. Tuesday and asked her to step outside her apartment in the Woodruff Heights complex, where she lives with her boyfriend and five children.

Police told Martin they wanted to speak to their 15-year-old stepson, but when they went outside, police handcuffed him and took him to the Spokane Valley Police Station, she said.

“He was crying and with tears,” said Martin. “He was scared. He didn’t know what was going on.”

Late on Monday evening, Martin said they heard gunshots and then sirens. She peered through the rear sliding glass door of the apartment to see medics treating a boy she recognized to be a friend of her neighborhood son.

Martin said the boy was only in her apartment a few days before playing video games with her son and the boys had no issues between them.

Her stepson had some problems last year, Martin said, and was stabbed to death last summer while chopping wood with friends.

“It’s the second time he’s had to go through this and it’s not right,” said Martin when her stepson was questioned by the police. “It’s not fair to him.”

After her stepson was arrested, Martin said the police had started to ransack the apartment.

“I don’t even know what they’re looking for because there are no guns in my house,” said Martin.

Shortly before 10 a.m., the investigators told Martin that she could pick up her stepson at the station.

After Martin left to pick up her stepson, her husband got into a confrontation with the uncle of the boy who had died.

The uncle smoked a cigarette and watched investigators ransack the apartment while Martin’s husband was wrapped in a blanket and pacing up and down.

The two started yelling at each other and the uncle shouted an arc before investigators parted the two men.

The investigation is still ongoing and no arrests have been made as of Tuesday morning.