Man Fires Pistol Indiscriminately and Recklessly into the Air from his Vehicle
Spokane Valley Sheriff’s Deputies responded quickly to the report of a male firing a handgun from his moving vehicle. The suspect vehicle was located near Mission and Greenacres, but the suspect ignored the Deputies attempting to pull him over and continued driving to his home. Eventually, he was safely disarmed and taken into custody.
On December 9, 2019, at approximately 8:45 a.m., a caller reported seeing the driver of a silver Cadillac with Florida license plates hold a black pistol out of the driver’s window, point it straight up into the air, and fire one shot. He stated the vehicle was traveling east on Sprague, west of Fancher, when this occurred.
Multiple Deputies responded and attempted to locate the suspect vehicle.
Approximately 20 minutes later, Deputy Walton located a vehicle matching the description near Greenacres and Mission. He activated his emergency lights and siren in an attempt to stop the car, but the driver, later identified as 31-year-old Mohamed H. Abed, did not stop. Instead, he continued to drive, obeying the traffic laws, to his residence located in the 17900 block of E. Shannon.
Extremely concerned by Abed’s previous actions and his unwillingness to stop, Deputy Walton continued to follow with concerns Abed might be luring him, and a Liberty Lake Police Officer who was assisting, toward a possible armed confrontation or ambush at his residence.
When Abed arrived at the residence, he backed into the driveway. Due to the window tint, Deputy Walton could not see Abed’s hands and could not tell if he was holding a weapon. Deputy Walton deployed his patrol rifle and began giving commands for Abed to show his hands. Abed looked toward the Liberty Lake Officer and ignored the commands. He started to drive forward around the passenger’s side of Deputy Walton’s patrol car, in the direction of the Liberty Lake Officer.
Fearing a potentially deadly confrontation was imminent, Deputy Walton requested emergency backup via his radio as he yelled for Abed to stop, now pointing his rifle directly at Abed. Abed looked at Deputy Walton, stopped, and backed up into the driveway again and then reached down toward his waistband. Fearing Abed was reaching for his weapon, Deputy Walton continued giving commands. Abed put both hands up and then reached back toward the right side of his waist. This happened a second time before Abed exited the vehicle with his hands visible. During this entire time, Abed was consistently smiling.
As additional units were responding to assist, Abed put both his hands down to his sides. Once additional Deputies/Officers arrived, an arrest team was assembled to include less lethal and lethal options. Abed complied with commands and was taken into custody without further incident.
Abed was advised of his rights and agreed to answer questions. He admitted to firing one shot into the air near Sprague and Fancher. When asked why, Abed did not answer and smiled. When asked if he understood the bullet could have struck and injured someone, Abed said, “What goes up must come down.” He continued to smile and laugh before and after Deputy Wang asked if he was angry when he fired the pistol or if he shot for amusement.
Abed’s girlfriend arrived at the location and explained while in Florida, Abed was diagnosed with a mental illness. At that time, she petitioned the Florida Courts to take away his gun rights, but the Florida Courts denied her request.
She explained she did not feel safe with Abed having access to firearms and gave Deputies permission to retrieve three additional guns. The three firearms were booked into property for safekeeping. The pistol Abed fired into the air was booked into property as evidence.
A Mental Health Field Response Team (Deputy and Frontier Behavioral Health Professional co-deployed as a team) was notified of the incident to conduct additional follow-up.
Abed was transported and booked into the Spokane County Jail for Drive-By Shooting (felony) and Fail to Stop/Obey (misdemeanor).
Thankfully, no one from the public, nor the suspect or Deputies/Officers were injured during this extremely volatile and potentially deadly encounter.