Spokane man accused of firing gun and stealing gas from Yakima gas station | Crime and courts

According to Yakima police, a Spokane man stole $30 worth of gasoline from a downtown convenience store on Oct. 24 after firing a gun.

Police were called to the AM/PM station at 601 E. Yakima Ave. about a robbery around 1:45 p.m. called. A store employee told a police dispatcher that a man fired a shot into the air during an argument over gas, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The Yakima Herald-Republic typically does not publish names of crime suspects until they are formally charged.

When officers arrived, the 53-year-old man told officers there had been a disagreement about gas, but it had been resolved, and suddenly drove off, the affidavit said. Police initially stopped the van in the 600 block of East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but the suspect drove away and stopped on North Fair Avenue near Target, where he was arrested.

The store employee told police that the suspect came in with a CashApp credit card and attempted to purchase $40 worth of gas. When the card didn't go through, the suspect had him check the card for $39, the affidavit said, before walking outside.

Then the store employee said he heard a gunshot and saw the suspect standing with a revolver, demanding that the employee open the gas pump, the affidavit states. After pumping $10 worth of gas, the suspect drove around the parking lot to another gas pump, flashed the gun, demanded that the pump be turned on, and then pumped $10 worth of gas again . He repeated his demand and again pumped $10 worth of gas, the affidavit states.

Police saw a gun on the floor of the van, the affidavit said, and the suspect has a felony conviction in Spokane that prohibits him from possessing a firearm.

He was booked into the Yakima County Jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, failure to stop for police and third-degree driving with a suspended/suspended license.

At a preliminary hearing on Oct. 25, Yakima County Assistant Prosecutor Amy Yarker argued for $100,000 bail. Yarger said the suspect has pending criminal charges in the Tri-Cities for driving without an ignition switch and driving with a revoked license.

Yarger said the suspect may be a flight risk due to his criminal history and lack of ties to the community. The current allegations also indicate a danger to the community.

Defense attorney Melissa Derry said $100,000 was too high for the suspect, who is a Social Security recipient, and the cost of $10,000 bail was too high. She recommended bail between $30,000 and $40,000.

Yakima County Superior Court Judge Sonia Rodriguez True set bail at $75,000, citing the suspect's lack of ties to the community and the allegation that he fired a weapon.

“I will come back. I’ll be back,” the suspect said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I got my own house.”

“That’s not my main concern, that you return to court,” Rodriguez told True. “The biggest part of my concern is the allegations here and the safety risk to the community, that something like this will happen (again), that someone will be hurt, that someone may have been hurt.”

The store was the scene of a robbery in April 2017 in which store employee Vikram Jaryal was shot. The case remains unsolved.