Man who assaulted Whitworth student identified, police request felony assault charge

A man accused of assaulting a female Whitworth student on Sunday was identified by police on Friday as a Spokane County Jail inmate arrested for another crime earlier in the week.

Police have requested the suspect, Tony R. Lee, 44, be charged with second-degree felony assault.

The suspect was arrested and booked in jail on Monday for an unrelated crime. Police developed probable cause that he was the suspect in the Sunday assault and subsequently requested the felony assault charge, according to a news release from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

At about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, deputies responded to a hospital where a female student at Whitworth had been taken by a family member, said Deputy Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

The student told deputies she was near Duvall Hall at about 11 p.m. when a man approached her and hit her several times before she started screaming. Bystanders said he ran off once she started yelling.

The suspect fled the scene, and police were searching for him up until they successfully identified the suspect already in jail.

The victim suffered minor injuries due to the assault.

Lee is being held in Spokane County Jail as a fugitive due to an extraditable Kentucky probation violation warrant, according to the news release.