Good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for joining us
here for Crimpy News.
1st at four I'm Whitney Ward alongside
Crime 2's Laura Petty of course and
we just obtained 911 records from an
unruly scene at Lewis and Clark High
School that then prompted a police response.
This is all part of an ongoing investigation
into the safety of local schools
and the response by administration.
So the tapes give us a little
insight into those pretty chaotic
moments that did lead to a lot of
frustration last night during a
Spokane City School board meeting.
So covering the story from the beginning.
How is Laura Papetti and she's
been here to talk about the new
information and what we know so far.
That's right. We've had a lot coming
in over the past several hours,
so when the incident happened,
we immediately here at KREM
2 requested the 911 tapes,
hoping to give some clarity and context to
what was described to us as a chaotic mob.
Again, those aren't words we chose.
That is how it's described to US students
hurling threats and teachers and staff.
Today we received those tapes and
911 tapes and this comes after last
night's meeting where a Lewis.
Clark teacher spoke to the school
board about ongoing violence and
what he says is a lack of response.
911 What's the
crime to obtain the 911 tapes through
a public records request that helps
give some context of a disruptive
scene between students and staff
at Lewis and Clark High School,
the calls came from a staff
member inside the school.
On the tape, you can hear people
shouting and chaos while the staff
member sends out a plea for police.
A student also provided KREM 2 with
cell phone footage from the scene.
What is going on? I'm calling 911.
We've got students coming in and
out of our office. We need police
at Lewis and Clark right away.
The 911 operator continues to ask
questions trying to get background
while sending officers in response.
What is going on with this?
We have students that are coming
in our office threatening us
and they're all over the place.
There's a mob of them.
Can we just have some police period?
The fear from that school day on May
5th spilled over into frustration
at the Spokane Public School Board
meeting this week, teachers.
Continuing to call for help,
but instead of police asking
for policies to change,
we've been begging at our school.
Easily since October.
For things to change because
it just seems like we're are,
we just waiting for
disaster is that the point?
I don't get the point,
it just it's insane to me.
Lewis and Clark, math teacher
Matt Tully Rupert spoke to the
district and specifically to
Superintendent Adam Swinyard,
saying the problem of safety at schools
isn't limited to a one time event,
but an ongoing issue.
One that he says has been ignored.
Putting staff and students at risk.
I just find it hard to to recognize
all of these stories that I've heard
all year that are so disturbing.
But yet we we. We're waiting for
a bigger disaster before we see.
Ohh we didn't know there was any issues.
All the kids come in this office.
Yeah it's threatening us and
absolutely calling the police.
Yeah, absolutely let you
guys know I'm not a problem.
I've got to Lewis and Clark.
OK, and there's still that
request for us to contact.
Awesome, thank you bye.
So again, receiving information from
a teacher and from the 911 tape.
So we did reach out to the school
district to request a statement and
to talk with the Superintendent.
Now we were told Adam Swinyard
was not available.
Today, the Superintendent,
but we did get a statement released
to us from the school district.
We are posting the full response but
I wanted to share some pertinent
information that comes from from that
response regarding this specific incident.
While accounts of what happened varied,
we do know that there were no weapons.
Present no physical violence and no
disruption to classrooms is again
coming from the school district.
Also saying since this incident occurred,
LC administrators have been talking with
staff and families about how to best
move forward as a learning community.
So again,
this is part of an ongoing investigation
that we're doing here at KREM, too.
We continue to air stories on the subject
of violence in our schools and the response,
and we will continue to do so.
We are committed to that,
but again,
some new information coming in
and we're posting.
All of it in its entirety on
crime.com, Laura, thank you very much.
And of course we will continue to
follow this and we'll let you know if
and when we do have a chance to sit
down and talk with the Superintendent
as I know that we have questions,
not just that are our questions but
from parents and families who are
wondering how the district is responding
and we continue to to ask for
those interviews and sit down
to talk about school violence.
But because now the FBI is involved
with this case per our investigation
over the last several months,
we do know the school district has not
wanted to sit down and talk about.
Mandatory reporting as we've been
talking about and so we will continue
to make those requests and let you
know when we get the very latest
and all the information that we
do have so far. You can find on
crime.com got it right now.
In the meantime, right now,
LC students are also dealing with
safety issues outside of the building,
fed up with car prowlers in
her school's parking lot.
1 LC student organized a meeting to come up
with a plan to make the entire area safer.
Lewis and Clark student Leilani Santiago
had her car broken into in March.
Thieves smashed a window,
took a pair of sunglasses,
but that wasn't the worst of it.
They poured Mountain Dew into her gas tank,
damaging the damages.
Totaled $3000 Leilani then.
Started a safety committee
at her school last night.
She held a meeting with students,
parents, police officers and volunteers.
The goal today is to inform
everyone about what has been done,
what is being done and brainstorm
ideas for what can be done.
Leilani says cameras would help
and so would extra patrols.
She says campus safety specialists
do walkthroughs during school hours,
but no one's really assigned after
school during plays or sporting events.
Spokane Police Lieutenant Steve Braun
says two months ago neighborhood
resource officers did increase
their presence in that area and
calls for service reduced from 93
to 57 in just the two weeks after.
That series of emphasis,
patrols vehicle prowling reports
then went from 18 to 3.
Melanie says she also plans to bring
the parking lot issues before City
Council members at their meeting on Monday,
so we'll continue to follow
that for you as well.
All right,
let's quickly take a break
from the headlines.
Let's head outside,
where it's kind of been a mix of sun,
mostly clouds.
Today,
our chief meteorologist Jeremy
League is here to tell us
what's in store for tomorrow.
Because it's Friday,
it is Friday and, you know,
Whitney, I was just trying to soak
in every bit of warmth because it
is a little bit warmer outside.
But those temperatures are.
Going to drop as our next little
frontal boundary works its way
through that does move in later on
this evening and we are going to
see a big change as that happens.
Right now temperatures in the mid 50s,
pretty widespread across much
of the inland Northwest.
But look at Moses Lake.
That rain already coming down.
You can see it making its way through
central Washington and as it moves in we
will see things change rather drastically.
Here we go.
Let's go ahead and slow things down so we can
get a good sense of what we have going on.
Those showers now moving into
Ritzville and making their way toward.
Yes,
I think they hit us in the 6:00 o'clock hour,
then in Corda Lane and say the
6:30 half hour and they're moving
out rather quickly by 9 we dry out
through much of Eastern Washington
and then dry out across the inland
northwest on the backside of this
a little bit of snow up in the
mountains that stays over 4000 feet.
So basically think of it this way.
It's those mountain passes that
you're going to have to worry about,
and that's it.
Temperatures fall into the mid 30s
tonight and then climb into the mid 50s
tomorrow with the mix of clouds and sun.
Alright, sounds good Jeremy.
Thank you very much and sports director
Brenda Greene is joining us now.
Kind of a big day.
If you're a Seahawks fan.
Yeah, the official schedule
is released and is going to
be released in about an hour,
but already there's a few
schedule leaks out there,
including a big one big for Seattle
and the first week of the season.
The Seattle Seahawks will be playing
against the Denver Broncos in
Seattle on Monday Night Football.
On the surface, you might be like,
why is this big?
Well, the Seahawks treated.
Former quarterback Russell Wilson
to Denver this offseason so
Russ's first game in Orange and
Blue will be back in Seattle in
front of his former fan base.
This one is gonna be spicy by the way.
The other game that is always hotly
contested that we already know about
is the Seahawks will play in San
Francisco against the 49ers and week two.
The full schedule is going to be
released in an hour on NFL Network.
Normally that would be a big deal, right?
Knowing about the 49ers,
but that pales in comparison now of course.
To Denver, yes.
Absolutely, that's just gonna be
an absolutely massive game.
Russell hasn't really said
anything yet on social media,
but I would imagine that it's
gonna be probably something cheesy,
because that that is his brand.
That's why we love him.
So, so there you go.
So the game could be obviously
really interesting for players,
of course,
because that's they have to be
a little conflicted about it.
Yeah,
as of right now it seems like
Drew lock who the Broncos traded
to Seattle will be the Seahawks
starting quarterbacks.
So that's going to be a lot for him,
I'm sure.
And also you've got several receivers
and Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf who
are used to receiving passes from Russ.
I'm sure that's gonna be a trip
for them to see Russell on the
same field in Seattle in a
completely different uniform.
I know they can all be gracious about it,
it will just be interesting to
see how it all plays out.
And of course I'm hoping that we
just trample all over the Broncos
that that place is gonna be on fire
on the first Monday of the season.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
Be looking forward to it, Brendan.
Thanks very much.
Alright still to come in other
top headlines today.
The man who became a hero to
the militia movement across the
country has now died.
Randy Weaver dead at age 74.
That's according to a social media
post from his daughter Sarah.
Weaver became a household name
back in 1992 when federal marshals
surrounded his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
Weaver was wanted on weapons charges,
an 11 day standoff then ended
with federal marshals.
Killing Weaver's wife and his teenage son,
a federal agent was also
shot and killed in that
siege. Weaver was acquitted in
the death of of that agent,
though and was only convicted
of minor weapons charges.
The Ruby Ridge standoff then became,
of course, a rallying cry for
anti government extremists,
including the Oklahoma City bomber
Timothy McVeigh.
In other top stories,
the Attorney General's office just
completed a project aiming to bring
justice to potentially thousands
of sexual assault survivors.
It involves collecting several 100
DNA samples from sex offenders
who lawfully owed a DNA sample,
but failed to provide it.
There is another problem that's
related which is convicted felons.
In our state are legally required to
provide their DNA to law enforcement,
but the reality is many thousands
of slip through the cracks.
So by pushing to follow up
on those missing DNA samples,
the team has now identified 635 offenders.
Out of those eight matches with cold
cases have been made that are now
waiting for review and local law
enforcement can better solve these cases.
They have now been sitting on for
years and hopefully bring some justice
to those sexual assault survivors.
As we continue our extensive coverage
on growth here in the Inland Northwest,
we're taking a look at a new
program working toward a solution
for this housing shortage.
We are seeing right now,
and it's been pretty popular so far.
We'll have all those details in
our Boomtown coverage coming up.
Plus, it is Asian American,
native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander month,
and here at crime too,
we're doing what we can to facilitate
open and honest conversations.
And tonight at 4:30,
we're hearing from one concert
pianist about her experience.