Woman shot and killed in ‘tragic case of road rage,’ Spokane police say

A woman was shot and killed Saturday morning in what Spokane police are calling “a tragic case of road rage.”

Police got multiple calls reporting the shooting around 11 a.m. at Francis Avenue and Addison Street, said Julie Humphreys, a Spokane Police Department spokeswoman.

When officers got there, the woman was lying in the roadway. She died at the scene, Humphreys said.

The officers later learned the woman, who has not been identified, was the passenger in a vehicle when she got into some sort of altercation with the suspect.

When their respective vehicles stopped, the victim and 28-year-old Richard Hough got out to confront each other, and he shot her, Humphreys said.

Hough and two family members who were with him stayed on the scene and were cooperative with police, Humphreys said. Hough was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.

Humphreys said Hough and the woman didn’t appear to know each other, and “this appears to be a tragic case of road rage.”

The man who was driving the victim left the scene, so officers are trying to find him. He was not identified.

While the roadway near the incident was closed for much of the day Saturday, Humphreys said it had reopened as of the evening.