SPOKANE, Wash. — A mother and teenager were arrested last Thursday night, March 17, after committing a drive-by shooting in North Spokane, according to police.
The incident occurred just before 11 p.m. when officers responded to several reports of shots fired in the area of 5300 N. Stevens. According to a press release from the Spokane Police Department (SPD), residents reported that a vehicle drove by their house two separate times while shooting out of the vehicle.
Officers responded to the scene and began an investigation. No injuries or deaths were reported, but the house and a car parked on the street were damaged in the shooting.
Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that there was an ongoing conflict between the victims and the occupants of a house in the 2400 block of N. Hogan. Once officers arrived, they located the suspect's vehicle in the driveway.
Police witnessed several people get into the car and leave the address. SPD conducted a stop of the car and removed seven people, with most of them being juveniles.
SPD was able to obtain numerous items of evidence from the car, including a handgun from the backpack of a 15-year-old.
The 15-year-old was later taken into custody for unlawful possession of a firearm. After this, probable cause was developed to charge the adult driving the vehicle, a 36-year-old woman, for a drive-by shooting and reckless endangerment. SPD confirmed that the woman was the mother of some of the juveniles in the car.
Ultimately, the investigation revealed that the group was associated with other criminal behavior earlier in the day. Before the shooting took place, officers had responded to the same Hogan address and arrested a juvenile for a series of assaults involving some of the same people in the drive-by shooting. According to SPD officials, the same vehicle from the drive-by shooting was previously driving around with multiple people. The juveniles would exit the car and assault victims.
The mother whose house was shot, known as Christi, says her daughter is one of the people living with the woman and teen responsible.
According to Christi, her daughter refuses to come home.
"We've had a lot of issues with her," Christi said. "I didn't think it would escalate to her wanting to kill us over nothing," Christi said.
The cause leading to the drive-by incident can be traced back to March 13 when Christi received a call from Spokane police.
"Telling us to pick up our daughter, saying she was involved in a felony hit and run," Christi said.
Her daughter's belongings were at a friend's house, so they drove her there. Once inside, Christi's daughter refused to come out. Then, another mom named Danielle got involved.
"It was like a big altercation," Christi said. "I just kept saying I just want my daughter."
"She says that she was a Pirus gang member, a blood gang member and that she was going to shoot up our house and she was going to kill us," Christi added. "And I didn't take her seriously because, I mean, she's a mom."
Christi left without her daughter. Four days later, bullets ripped through her house.
"I heard gunshots at 10:30 at night," Christi said. "I was in bed."
Christi says she got out of bed and went to the living room, and saw the SUV circle back.
"They started shooting and my daughter's dad like threw me on the ground," Christi said. "He's like 'get on the ground' and they shot a couple more times. But, I think they were shooting at my car that time."
Christi said she recognized the car as Danielle's. She called 911 and a short time later, Spokane police pulled it over.
"I'm still completely shocked and I'm shocked that my daughter would bring these people here," Christi said. "My daughter was with them. She brought them here, they had no idea where we lived."
Christi's daughter was not arrested in the shooting. She is still living at Danielle's house and, according to her mother, is not done sending threats towards her parents.
"She has messaged her dad and threatened him more, saying basically that 'it's not over' and oh yeah there's lots more threats coming."