SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - The man shot and killed by Spokane police near the scene of a homicide had a long criminal history and was involved in a water rescue last week in Pend Oreille County.
The Spokesman-Review identified the man Wednesday as 37-year-old Jeremy Arnold. He was fatally shot by officers in a scene captured by television news crews outside a home on the north side on Tuesday.
Arnold drove through a police barricade as officers were investigating the death of a woman whose body was found inside the home. He stepped out of a truck holding an object that police said appeared to be a firearm. Officers opened fire, killing him.
The Spokane County medical examiner’s office identified the woman found dead in the house as Tracy Fergerstrom, 46. She reportedly suffered multiple stab wounds.
The home is registered with the Spokane County assessor’s office in the name of Stephanie Arnold, the newspaper reported. Stephanie Arnold died last summer after being pulled from the Spokane River in an apparent float trip accident. Jeremy Arnold, her husband, was also floating the river.
On April 24, Jeremy Arnold called for help at Horseshoe Lake in Pend Oreille County when a fishing boat he was on sank. The passengers, including Arnold’s 2-year-old daughter and a friend identified as Mandy Waters, made it to shore.
Arnold’s juvenile record included convictions for theft, burglary, escape and attempting to elude police. After he turned 18 in 1995, he was convicted in federal court of distributing cocaine and carrying a firearm during a drug sale. He was released from prison in September 2004.
In October 2004, he participated in a violent home invasion robbery as a lookout, according to court documents. Three children were inside at the time.
He was implicated in a drive-by shooting the next month, and in December his former girlfriend, a witness to the drive-by shooting, filed a restraining order against him. According to a news story, Arnold threatened the woman before he left the courtroom.
Arnold was facing multiple charges in all those cases in May 2005, when he was released from jail on a weeklong furlough to get married before his sentencing to eight years in prison. According to news reports at the time, Arnold cut off his ankle monitoring device and was on the lam for another week before being caught.
Arnold was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for five counts of burglary, two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery and three counts of intimidating a witness.
He was released from prison in June 2011, according to court records.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, https://www.spokesman.com
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