Suspect attacks deputy with knife, fork

MOSES LAKE - The Columbia Basin Investigative Team has released the names of both a domestic violence suspect and the Grant County agent who shot him Tuesday.

Corp. Allan Sleeper, 57, fired his sidearm at the 9300 block of Viewcrest Drive Southeast in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. He injured Corey L. Minatani, 39, a suspect in the reported domestic violence offense.

Minatani remains hospitalized in Spokane under the watchful eye of a Grant County sheriff's deputy, and is in stable condition.

Upon release he will be booked into Grant County Jail, Sheriff Tom Jones said.

Around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Corp. Sleeper and several other Grant County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to a verbal domestic violence call at the home on Viewcrest Drive.

While in transit, the incident had been upgraded to a domestic violence call. Children were also reportedly in the house.

Corp. Sleeper arrived first on scene and encountered Minatani's wife, yet unnamed, who was, according to reports, injured and covered in blood.

The wife told Sleeper that her husband was inside the home and had cut her with a knife. She also told him that Minatani was an expert in martial arts.

After Sleeper entered the home, he found Minatani inside a bathroom. The two men spoke while Sleeper called for additional officers.

Minatani told Sleeper he was armed with a knife while holed up in the bathroom. He then showed the corporal the blade, as well as a long, sharp-tined serving fork.

While Sleeper repeatedly demanded Minatani drop the weapons, the suspect refused.

Minatani then advanced within several feet of Sleeper, who then fired a single shot from his .40-caliber firearm, striking the man in the chest and knocking him to the floor.

According to reports, Sleeper then radioed that he had shot the suspect, who continued to resist arrest. After fighting with responding officers, Minatani was restrained and transported to Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake.

He was later transported to a Spokane hospital for further treatment.

The incident remains under investigation.

As the inter-agency team works forward, Sleeper is expected to stay on paid administrative leave, said Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones. That's the department's standard protocol.

Corp. Sleeper has been in law enforcement for over two decades.

He began working in Kansas in 1989, and spent a four-year stint with the Royal City Police Department from 1993 to 1997.