100 years ago near Colville: Neighbor arrested in connection to man’s shooting death

Mystery surrounded a shooting incident northeast of Colville, but two facts were certain: Randolph Schmidt, about 60, was lying dead at the undertaker’s, and his neighbor John Rapp, 58, was in jail.

The Stevens County sheriff said he first heard about the shooting on Saturday night, when Rapp called and said that he had shot at Schmidt four times, but didn’t think he had hit him. He said he fired at Schmidt only after Schmidt fired at him twice with a pistol, also to no effect.

Bad blood had existed between the two neighbors for some time. Rapp said he had testified against Schmidt on an insanity charge two weeks earlier. Schmidt was then ordered to stay away from Rapp.

Then, on Saturday morning, Rapp said he went to his mailbox and saw Schmidt coming down the trail brandishing a pistol. Schmidt opened fire, said Rapp, and Rapp returned fire with his rifle. He never saw Schmidt fall.

Later that day, Rapp called the sheriff to report that Schmidt had fired at him and was told to swear out a warrant for Schmidt’s arrest.

That never happened, because three days later, another neighbor found Schmidt’s body and brought it into town.

Now, deputies were trying to piece together what happened, but the evidence so far was contradictory. They found empty cartridges from Rapp’s rifle, but they were a long way from where he claimed to have fired at Schmidt. They found no cartridges from Schmidt’s pistol, nor could they find a pistol at all.

The investigation continued.