Medical examiner identifies man accused of killing 24-year-old, then shooting himself in head earlier this month in Spokane

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the man suspected of killing 24-year-old Michael Lindblom and then shooting himself in the head Dec. 11 in Spokane.

The office said in a news release Tuesday that Rigoberto Garcia Lopez, 39, succumbed to his gunshot wound Dec. 22 at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

He had not been publicly identified because police said they were waiting until he was released from the hospital and arrested.

Police responded to a reported shooting around 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at a home on the 1300 block of West Shannon Avenue, according to a Spokane police news release.

There, they found Lindblom with gunshot wounds. Lindblom died despite care from first responders. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Shortly after, officers received reports of a shooting a few blocks away on the corner of Monroe Street and Knox Avenue. There, they found Lopez with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

He was taken to the hospital, where he was in critical condition for five days after the shooting.

Witnesses told officers Lopez, who was an acquaintance of some former tenants at the residence, arrived uninvited and let himself in. He was speaking to people who were not present and expressing extreme paranoia, according to court records.

Eventually, Lopez produced a handgun and without provocation shot Lindblom, witnesses said.

Police said there was no indication the shooter knew the victim.