In brief: Man killed by Stevens County detective ID’d

A man shot and killed by Stevens County detective Dwayne Johnson on Tuesday has been identified as Brendon Keith Herman Wright, 41. He died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Stevens County coroner.

Johnson had responded to a neighbor’s home near the rural community of Rice after the residents called him to report someone was trying to kick in their door. Johnson told investigators that when he arrived at the home, Wright opened fire on him with a shotgun. Johnson ran behind his truck and returned fire, killing Wright.

Johnson was treated and released from a local hospital for shotgun pellet wounds to an ear and his left hand.

Boil-water order lifted

The state Department of Health has lifted the boil-water advisory for residents of Pasadena Park Water District 17, almost a week after it was issued when a sample showed potentially harmful E. coli bacteria.

The district serves an area north of the Spokane River to about a mile south of Stoneman Road and 2 miles west and 2 miles east of Argonne Road.

The department recommends customers flush faucets or other equipment that was shut off during the order. Users should run the water until the temperature changes.

Bruce Davidson, manager of the water district, said just one sample showed potentially harmful bacteria last week and the department temporarily increased the chlorine level in the water to kill it.

Those with questions about their water quality should call (509) 926-5535.

SPD receives praise, caution

The city’s Use of Force Commission applauded the Spokane Police Department’s progress so far implementing its recommendations but cautioned Thursday that it’s received mixed messages about whether the requested culture audit is being performed.

Police Chief Frank Straub assured commission Chairman Earl “Marty” Martin that the U.S. Justice Department, which is reviewing the department’s operations in the wake of the deadly 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm, will be suggesting suitable consultants for the city to use for the audit. Straub said the city is committed to following through on it.

“I believe that one of the primary things that DOJ will do is an assessment of how our culture is affecting our use of force,” said the chief, who along with Mayor David Condon advised that each of the commission’s recommendations has been either implemented or is in the process of being implemented. “Our officers have embraced the recommendations made.”

The commission was empaneled by Condon after he took office following the 2011 conviction of now-former Spokane police Officer Karl Thompson on federal civil rights charges stemming from the Zehm confrontation.

Murder conviction thrown out

The Washington Court of Appeals has ruled that a 2006 Spokane murder conviction must be thrown out because some of the jurors in the case were questioned individually in the jury room, not in open court.

The questioning violated Clifford M. Meyers’ right to a public trial, the court said in its decision. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Meyers.

Meyers was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison for the 2005 “execution-style” slaying of Elijah Bishop, 22, as he sat in a truck in the Shadle Wal-Mart parking lot. Witnesses said Meyers, then 35, shot Bishop in the head at close range.

According to newspaper reports at the time, police described Meyers as a career criminal with 14 previous felony convictions that included first-degree statutory rape, burglary and illegal possession of a firearm.

Judge postpones Henrikson trial

BISMARCK, N.D. – A federal judge has postponed the trial of a Watford City, N.D., man who faces felony weapons charges and is linked to a suspected murder-for-hire case in Spokane.

James T. Henrikson was indicted by a grand jury in January on seven counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of felon in possession of ammunition. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A jury trial was originally scheduled to start next week in U.S. District Court in Bismarck. But Henrikson’s public defender filed a motion Wednesday to suppress evidence seized from a safe in Henrikson’s home. The trial will be postponed to allow for a hearing and decision on that motion.

Henrikson remains in federal custody without bail.

His estranged business partner, Doug Carlile, was found shot to death Dec. 15 in his Spokane home. Timothy Suckow is charged with first-degree premeditated murder in Carlile’s death. Henrikson has not been charged in the case but is mentioned often in court documents.

According to those documents and testimony from an investigator at a court hearing in January, Carlile reportedly told one of his sons that if he disappeared or was killed, Henrikson would be responsible. An informant also told investigators he personally heard Henrikson threaten to kill Carlile and hurt his entire family, and authorities searching Suckow’s phone found Henrikson’s number in his contacts under “James ND.”