Boy, 13, shot, wounded by homeowner

A 13-year-old boy is in stable condition after being shot by a homeowner during an early morning burglary in Medical Lake on Monday.

No one has been arrested, and the investigation is ongoing. Spokane County prosecutors will decide whether to file charges.

The boy, who sheriff’s officials previously believed was 14, and another teenage boy were carrying baseball bats when the homeowner confronted them after an intrusion alarm alerted him to a break-in at an enclosed room beneath his deck. The home is in the 600 block of North Grant Street, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

Although authorities were withholding the homeowner’s identity, county property records show the home is owned by Justin J. Brown and Melissa A. Brown.

The man’s wife called 911 about 4:50 a.m. and said her husband was holding a burglary suspect in the backyard.

“Minutes later she reported that the suspect had been shot,” Reagan said.

The boy was transported to a downtown hospital where he underwent surgery midmorning, Reagan said. The second boy jumped over a fence and fled through an alley, but detectives later obtained an identity and interviewed the 14-year-old suspect after contacting him at his home.

The burglarized homeowner said the room had been broken into several days earlier. He didn’t report the earlier break-in to police, but he did install the alarm, Reagan said.

Deputies seized the .45-caliber pistol used in the shooting. Detectives were at the home much of Monday. The man had talked to detectives, “but there is evidence in and around the home that still awaits collection,” Reagan said Monday morning.

A suspect in the burglary at the home last week was arrested Monday afternoon after a blocks-long foot chase in Medical Lake. Mitchell Adam Swift, 18, of Medical Lake, was booked into jail for residential burglary and a municipal court theft warrant.