SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick says she met with the family of a 74-year-old pastor and nursery owner fatally shot by a Spokane County sheriff’s deputy. Her department has taken the lead role in investigating the shooting. Kirkpatrick says she told Wayne Scott Creach’s relatives on Tuesday what detectives have learned in their investigation and expressed her condolences.
The chief says she hopes the case will be handed over to the Spokane County prosecutor’s office by early next week.
Police Lt. Dave McGovern says Deputy Brian Hirzel parked in the Spokane Valley nursery’s parking lot late on the night of Aug. 25 to check out possible prowlers at the request of a neighbor. Creach’s family says he went out with a handgun to investigate the stranger in the parking lot. Hirzel was driving an unmarked car.
Hirzel has said he told Creach four to six times that he was an officer and to drop his weapon.
