Tenant accused of assaulting homeless person with baseball bat outside Browne’s Addition apartment

A man accused of hitting a homeless person with a baseball bat in Browne’s Addition was arrested Wednesday morning.

William L. Carroll, 36, was taken into custody on suspicion of second-degree assault.

Police received a call at about 11:40 a.m. about an incident on the 1900 block of West Sunset Boulevard, said Officer John O’Brien with the Spokane Police Department.

Carroll lives in a home converted to apartments at 1907 W. Third Ave., where, according to police, there has been a problem with people who are homeless taking shelter underneath the property’s carport.

On the rainy Tuesday morning, Carroll told police, he spotted three people he assumed to be transients under the carport, O’Brien said. Witnesses told police Carroll went outside and confronted the people, who appeared to be respectful and began picking up their belongings.

The witnesses then saw Carroll tossing the transients’ personal property aside while they were attempting to pick things up, O’Brien said.

At some point, another neighbor saw the confrontation and came outside armed with an ax, O’Brien said. The neighbor with the ax didn’t threaten or assault anyone but rather stood there watching the situation unfold, O’Brien said.

Carroll went back into his home and retrieved a baseball bat and eventually hit one of the transient people in the leg, O’Brien said. The person who was hit had a minor injury but was not taken to the hospital, O’Brien said. None of the transient people was arrested or cited, and they “didn’t seem to be a problem,” O’Brien said.

Police have received prior calls about transient people hanging out in the carport , O’Brien said. However, it can be difficult to track how many times police have been called to that specific location because the call can be put in to Sunset Grocery’s address or another nearby address based on the information the caller provides, he said.

Carroll has no local criminal history, according to O’Brien . The company that manages the property where the carport is located, iRE LLC, did not respond to requests for comment.