Man who exchanged gunfire with Spokane police downtown in October faces federal drug charge
A man shot by Spokane police during an exchange of gunfire on downtown’s western edge in October is accused of trafficking 15,000 illicit pills possibly containing fentanyl, according to court records.
Israel Garcia is identified in federal court documents as the man who stepped out of a dark-colored sedan and shot at officers at Cedar Street and First Avenue on Oct. 16, 2022. Police, working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, were communicating with Garcia through a confidential source who had arranged to buy drugs at a nearby apartment. Garcia is identified in court records, prepared by a DEA special agent, as a courier in the transaction with an unnamed drug source.
Garcia was charged in a criminal complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Spokane. He faces a charge of possession with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, a felony that carries a mandatory 10-year prison term.
At the time of the October 2022 shooting, Garcia was serving probation on another federal charge of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer, according to court records. During an incident at his Yakima apartment in October 2015, Garcia threatened to shoot FBI agents who were assisting in serving a search warrant at his home. He was given a seven-year sentence in August 2016, and deported in November 2021, according to court records.
The October 2022 incident in Spokane violated the terms of his release. On Dec. 27, 2022, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Goeke while continuing to receive medical care at a facility not identified in court records.
Goeke ordered Garcia to be detained by the U.S. Marshals. The criminal complaint related to the drugs was filed two days after that hearing. He was not listed in custody of the Spokane, Benton or Yakima county jails, and a spokeswoman at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center said no one under that name was listed in their care as of Tuesday.
Witnesses reported hearing 10-15 gunshots at the intersection that morning. Spokane Police at the time said the sedan carrying Garcia had been pinned and he exited the vehicle, firing his handgun before being struck by gunfire from “multiple officers.” One officer received a “grazing wound,” and Garcia was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Garcia, two unnamed adults and a child traveled that morning to Spokane from Yakima, according to the DEA’s sworn affidavit. The adults were questioned after the shooting and said they were unaware Garcia was armed and carrying what is believed to be thousands of pills containing fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has been responsible for a growing number of overdose deaths in Eastern Washington and across the country.
Spokane Police recruited the informant on Oct. 10, 2022, to provide information about drug suppliers after being caught themselves with 5,000 pills, according to court records. Information provided by the informant led to the arrest of another drug courier not named in the court records on Oct. 15, 2022, a day before the shooting.
The informant had been talking to Garcia on the phone, declining a meeting at the nearby Frank’s Diner that morning and instead insisting on a meeting at the informant’s apartment near First and Cedar. When Garcia told the informant he’d arrived, officers moved in to arrest him and the gunfight ensued.
Authorities interviewed the two adults in the car. The DEA agent wrote that there was “no evidence that I am aware of at this time which inculpates any other occupants present other than Garcia.”
The pills were seized from a white plastic grocery bag in the car, and had the appearance of “mexi-blues,” counterfeit pills resembling legitimate Oxycodone pills but that contain an unknown quantity of fentanyl. Authorities also recovered a second pistol in the car, according to court records.
The shooting is being investigated by the Spokane Independent Investigative Response Team, led by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.