Spokane City Council, mayor’s office receive death threat

The offices of the Spokane’s mayor and City Council received a death threat from the same man Sunday morning, according to city spokesman Brian Coddington and Council President Lori Kinnear.

The man reportedly left his name and phone number before saying “you’re going to be executed,” Kinnear recalled.

Police are investigating and therefore will not release the name of the suspect, said Spokane Police Department spokeswoman Julie Humphreys. No arrest has been made, Humphreys confirmed.

“It was somebody sounding not mentally stable, but aware enough to make some very specific threats,” she continued. “He is known to police downtown, apparently, and they sent a picture of him to the office, to the officers who are staffing our meetings and to security in the building.”

Coddington noted that the mayor’s office occasionally gets inappropriate or harassing voicemails, but that this call was atypical.

To Kinnear, the threat is just the latest reminder of a deterioration of norms in local politics.

Kinnear has served on the City Council since 2016 and was appointed as council president in July following the midterm departure of former City Council President Breean Beggs. At the beginning of the year, when asked whether she was considering a run for mayor or council president, Kinnear rejected it out of hand, saying she was done with politics, in part because she was exhausted by frequent vitriolic behavior.

“When we come into council chambers or exit the chambers, I’m always looking around and at where people’s hands are, quite frankly,” Kinnear said. “And I don’t want to live like that anymore.”