One man shot in North Spokane after suspected drug deal ambush

A drug deal led to a gunfight in a north Spokane parking lot Saturday, leaving one man in jail, one in the hospital and three unidentified suspects on the loose.

Police were alerted to shooting just before 2 a.m. in the parking lot of the Walgreens on East Wellesley Avenue. An officer later stopped a driver, Cody M. Sutton, who had just driven a friend to Holy Family Hospital.

Sutton, 25, told police he and his friend had been at the Walgreens to sell heroin to a woman he had never met, according to court documents. When they got into her car, two unidentified men approached and demanded money, then began beating them with pistols, Sutton told police.

Sutton’s face was bloodied, and one of the unidentified men shot his friend through the left shoulder. Sutton told the men he would get money from the trunk of his car, and they fled toward the woman’s car after he handed them a $10 bill, according to court documents.

Sutton realized after the incident “that the female was part of the setup, as she was buying time for the two male subjects to arrive,” court documents say.

Sutton told police he fired two or three shots at the other car as he sped out of the parking lot with his wounded friend in the passenger seat, according to court documents. He was arrested for illegally possessing a .380 handgun, which he told police he bought from “a friend of a friend,” court documents say.

Police are searching for the woman and two other men.

Sutton has six previous felony convictions involving drug, theft, burglary and assault charges. He was arrested in 2011 for taking about $100,000 in jewelry from a home in Veradale.