Police investigating three people as court documents detail events leading to Spokane Valley killing

The Spokane Valley Police Department is investigating three people in relation to a Wednesday night homicide.

At around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a 911 call following a shooting at Second Avenue and Havana Street, less than 100 feet west of the Spokane city limits and a block north of Interstate 90.

After arriving at the scene, police “forced entry” into a double-wide manufactured home with help from the Spokane Valley Fire Department and found 40-year-old Deshaun “Dank” Crawford dead on the floor. Officers also found an uncooperative 26-year-old woman hiding in the bathroom of a detached garage next to the home.

Crawford had bullet wounds in his back, chest and armpit. A Spokane Valley police officer saw the muzzle of a pistol, and a can of bear spray, under his body.

The 55-year-old woman who reported the shooting told police dispatchers that Crawford was shot two hours before she called 911.

The Spokesman-Review isn’t including the names of the three individuals under investigation because they haven’t been charged or arrested in connection to the shooting.

The people under investigation, all of whom were at the house, had significantly different descriptions of the incident, search warrants filed in Spokane County Superior Court indicate.

“It’s a convoluted one,” Spokane Valley Police Chief Dave Ellis said. “There’s a lot of conflicting information.”

The woman who called 911 told police that Crawford came over to the house and, at one point, spilled a drink on the ground.

Other people in the house then told Crawford to clean up after himself. That angered Crawford, the woman told police, and he proceeded to pull out a knife.

The other individuals in the house then “got him (Crawford) outside of the residence.” Following that argument, that woman “had had enough and left for the casino” in Airway Heights, according to court documents.

Two hours later, she got a call from a 45-year-old man who lives at 4306 E Second Ave. The man told the woman he had heard unfamiliar voices coming from the house, followed by gunshots.

Spokane Valley police have seized her beige 2003 Ford Taurus, which they say has “probable blood” on the rear passenger bumper.

The 45-year-old man’s account differs dramatically from the woman’s.

He told police that he asked Crawford to leave the house because he was “talking crazy.”

At approximately 6:45 p.m., Crawford returned to the man’s house and banged on the door. The 45-year-old, then home alone, opened the door and saw Crawford “brandish” a gun.

The man, who told police he didn’t have a gun, said he ran away from Crawford and heard gunshots while fleeing. He returned home two hours later and found Crawford dead on the floor, the man said in court documents.