By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Two armed citizens in the rural northeast Washington community of Kettle Falls fatally shot another local man Tuesday evening after he was observed firing a rifle in a residential area, yelling threats and aiming the gun at people, according to the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office.
An investigation into the fatal shooting was ongoing, and involved the sheriff’s department, Kettle Falls Police Department and Washington State Patrol, according to published reports. No arrests were made.
The dead man has been identified as 45-year-old Joshua West. According to KXLY News, West had been aiming his rifle and firing shots “in several locations before he was killed.” He was reportedly involved in “some sort of disturbance at a local restaurant” about 40 minutes prior to the fatal confrontation.
According to the sheriff’s department, the two armed citizens, who resided in the immediate area, attempted to de-escalate the situation, but when West reportedly fired a shot at another man who was standing outside of his residence, the armed citizens fired and West was killed. Responding deputies found him lying in the road.
KREM News reported the Old Kettle Road, which runs south and west out of Kettle Falls, was closed for the investigation. The shooting apparently occurred in the road, actually outside of the Kettle Falls city limits, according to a check with Google Maps.
It was not clear where the reported disturbance occurred prior to the shooting, but in this part of northern Stevens County, it is not surprising that most local residents own firearms.
The sheriff’s office Facebook page report garnered more than 130 comments, many from people who either knew the dead man, or had witnessed some of the incidents leading up to the shooting. Many of those comments apparently had been removed, however.
Kettle Falls is located about 80 miles north from Spokane along Highway 395, in northern Stevens County near the upper reaches of Roosevelt Lake on the Spokane River.
Under Washington use-of-force law, “Homicide is…justifiable when committed either:
“(1) In the lawful defense of the slayer, or his or her husband, wife, parent, child, brother, or sister, or of any other person in his or her presence or company, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design on the part of the person slain to commit a felony or to do some great personal injury to the slayer or to any such person, and there is imminent danger of such design being accomplished; or
“(2) In the actual resistance of an attempt to commit a felony upon the slayer, in his or her presence, or upon or in a dwelling, or other place of abode, in which he or she is.”
Any decision is in the hands of the Stevens County Prosecutor’s Office.
