Spokane police wound man in wild shootout

Associated Press

SPOKANE – Police shot and wounded a man they said “fired wildly” at them with a semiautomatic assault rifle inside a crowded bus and train station early today after he fled from a traffic stop.

Nobody else was hurt, although bullet holes were found in an Amtrak train and in one of the three Greyhound buses in the station. A bullet was found inside a dinner roll inside the train’s unoccupied dining car, police said.

There were an estimated 250 passengers aboard the train and 100 were aboard the three buses at the time, in addition to an unknown number of people in the terminal, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

“We were lucky he didn’t try to get on board and take hostages,” Cottam said.

The 20-year-old gunman, whose name was withheld by police, was hospitalized in satisfactory and stable condition after surgery for a bullet wound to one leg. The man has a criminal record, police said.

The man “fired wildly” with a Chinese-made assault weapon, Police Chief Roger Bragdon said. Police chased the man outside the Spokane Intermodal Center terminal to avoid hitting civilians.

Cottam said the gunman fired 15 or more shots from the semiautomatic weapon, while officers were believed to have fired only three shots.

Bragdon said he knew of no motive for the attack on police.

The violence began about 1:20 a.m. when an officer pulled over a vehicle for speeding and someone inside fired at the officer, Bragdon said.

The vehicle sped off, but crashed a short time later. Two men got out and one carrying a rifle climbed onto elevated railroad tracks and ran into the depot, where the train and buses had just arrived, he said.

The man who had run into the depot put down the rifle after being shot and was wrestled to the ground by officers, Bragdon said.

The second man, who was injured in the car crash, surrendered nearby.

It was the fourth time since August – and the second time in a week – that Spokane police fired at suspects. Two people died.