SPOKANE, Wash. — Witnesses recount the scary scene after an active shooter situation left a suspect dead in Spokane Valley Friday morning.
The shooting took place in the Woodruff Business Park on East Knox Avenue just after 9 a.m.
Employees at a business near the crime scene told KREM's Taylor Viydo they heard as many as 20 shots coming from south of the scene, near the Johnson Controls building. That was followed by what sounded like a flash-bang grenade, a tool often used by law enforcement.
The suspect died after he crashed his vehicle following an exchange of gunfire with sheriff's deputies.
"I was just sitting at my desk and started hearing ‘pop pop, pop.’ Probably 15 to 20 shots consecutively,” said Blake Tucker, who works nearby. "I knew something was going down. I shoot, so I knew that there was an active shooter going on. And then we saw all the police presence, so we knew something went down."
They later saw smoke coming from the scene, Viydo said.
Another witness told KREM the suspect was seen driving his car when police shot at the car and then the suspect hit a tree.
“It was still stuck so I didn’t know if somebody was still in it, I couldn’t see inside. But I just heard a loud revving and the radiator was spewing, there’s all sorts of smoke and he slowed down and I saw a guy run from across the street go over to the multi-fab building. When he got to the multi-fab building the guy crouched down underneath a rock. I saw another guy that was in a truck that was right there parked and he just started running. Just straight out sprint running away from the scene. I didn’t know if that thing was going to explode or if there’s an active gun fight going on,” said Chad Michaelbook.
Michaelbook said if had he and his boss been in the area just 30 seconds earlier, they could have been caught in the crossfire.
A man working at a dog daycare business said he and other employees were "lockdown" as detectives continued to comb the scene.
The man said after the shooting, he went outside and noticed the suspect's vehicle up against a tree, with its wheels spinning.
