Search for assault suspects leads to school lockdown

MOSES LAKE – Law enforcement officers from several agencies teamed up the morning of Jan. 9 to apprehend two men and a juvenile suspected of severely beating another man.

But the arrests were not made until after a long search that caused the lockdown of schools, a clinic and day-care centers. The lockdowns were lifted after the arrests.

Grant County deputies were called to an assault at a home in the Pelican Point neighborhood near the Moses Lake Sand Dunes early on the 9th. The victim, a 41-year-old Moses Lake man, had serious injuries which he said were caused during a beating at a different location.

The victim told investigators the identities of three men – two adults and a juvenile – who allegedly caused his injuries. He said the three suspects assaulted him, then loaded him into a car and drove him to the Moses Lake Sand Dunes.

The victim was able to escape and seek help at a nearby home. He was taken by ambulance to Samaritan Hospital.

Moses Lake Police, Grant County Sheriff’s Deputies, Grant County’s Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (INET) and the Moses Lake Regional Tactical Response Team (TRT) searched for the three suspects. Around 7 a.m., they learned that one of the suspects, a 23-year-old man, was at a home in the 800 block of Grand Drive in Moses Lake.

As a precaution, sheriff and police incident command team members called the Moses Lake School District, Moses Lake Christian Academy, the nearby Moses Lake Clinic and close-by daycare centers and had them all lock down.

Officers, deputies, INET and TRT surrounded the home, and the suspect came out of the home and was arrested without incident around 8:15 a.m. Schools and businesses then lifted their lockdown orders.

Then, around 10 a.m., police learned where the other two suspects were. On the way to that home at 816 Evelyn Drive, police and deputies stopped a car which had one of the suspects inside. That suspect, an 18-year-old Moses Lake man, was arrested without incident.

Officers and deputies then continued to the Evelyn Drive home, where they arrested the third suspect, a 16-year-old boy, in the driveway of the home.

The investigation continues, and the names of the suspects have not yet been released pending the filing of criminal charges.