Spokane Multi Hit-And-Run Suspect Takes Own Life After Surrounded

Attempts to prevent a Spokane man from fatally shooting himself tragically failed late Saturday night.

  The Man Was Being Pursued for Multiple Hit-And-Run Crashes

Saturday evening around 11:10 PM Spokane County Deputies responded to an area in the 600 block of N. Bowdish Road in the Spokane Valley about a man driving a Dodge pickup who had hit two unoccupied parked cars.

A witness began to follow the suspect, and he was then pursued by Deputies. Further west, the witness who was following said the suspect driver hit a mailbox, then stopped.  The witness backed up after the man got out of the truck and had an object in his hand the driver thought might be a gun.

Deputies caught up with the man, whose name has not yet been released, near E. Valleyway Avenue and N. Raymond Road around 11:21 PM and radioed in the man was holding a gun to his head.

Deputies repeatedly told the man to drop the weapon, but the man said he would shoot himself. At one point he put the gun on the ground, but then picked it up again. Deputies attempted to use less-lethal methods to defuse the situation but they failed.

The man told Deputies to shoot him so he wouldn't have to do it himself.

At one point a Taser was deployed to immobilize the man and so Deputies could get the firearm, but the devise failed to stop him.  About a minute afterward, the man stood up, pointed the gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. He was rushed to an area hospital but tragically he died.  Deputies did not fire any weapons during the incident.

The incident remains under investigation.