SWAT team comes up empty in North Side home

A SWAT team stormed a home on Spokane’s North Side early this afternoon after residents came home and found a burglar inside the dwelling. A resident of the home said she returned from a dentist appointment and saw a gate opened and a window broken at the back of the house. A man who was with her went into the home at the front door and was struck in the head with what he believed to be a pistol. They called the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. About the same time, city police received a call of a man running with a gun near a motel and the Northpointe Shopping Center. The home is on North Birch Avenue, about a block from Northpointe. Law officers said reports from the residents indicated the possibility that a second suspect may have been hiding inside the home, so a SWAT operation was conducted. Streets in the neighborhood were blocked off and traffic is being detoured around the scene.