Police say robbery suspects beat victim with a stick or pipe in drug-related assault

Police arrested two people suspected of beating a man with a stick or pipe Tuesday.

Spokane Police Department responded to a robbery near Indiana Avenue and Atlantic Street just before 4:30 p.m. , according to a press release from the department. Officers found someone presumed to have been beaten in the head with a weapon.

The person told police they didn’t know the man and woman who beat them, but that the “contact was drug related,” the department said. They were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The suspects also ordered the victim to remove his clothing during the beating and walked away with the clothes, money and a cell phone.

Law enforcement found the suspects based on the victim’s description, the press release said. Samantha Thexton, 29, and Tom Blake Jr., 24, were both arrested on suspicion of robbery and booked into the Spokane County Jail.

Blake has a prior conviction for felony assault, court records show.