Police: Cop shooter stole car from woman, 87

A suspected heroin trafficker believed to have shot two sheriff’s deputies stole an 87-year-old woman’s car before he fatally shot himself during a police pursuit Tuesday. Police said late Tuesday that the woman chased Charles Robert Wallace, 41, out of her house and hit him with a cane before Wallace, who was armed with a gun, stole her Honda Accord. Wallace was driving that Honda Accord when he ran over spike strips, crashed into a Spokane police cruiser, then fatally shot himself. Federal agents had been looking for Wallace since hearing he’d left a Spokane Valley drug rehabilitation center last week. Two sheriff’s deputies had stopped Wallace in an SUV when he shot them and fled west to the 9800 block of North Andrew Street, where he forced his way into the woman’s home and demanded her keys. He then drove north on Highway 395, where another wild chase ensued. “This event was extremely dynamic and rapidly unfolding. Information was constantly being given to responding officers who continued to search for the primary suspect. Other individuals may have been involved, creating other locations within the City and the County to receive police attention,” according to a news release by Officer Jennifer DeRuwe, spokeswoman for the Spokane Police Department. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.