Evidence can branch unexpectedly

RITZVILLE — The police chief has a story about how crime scene evidence can come back unexpectedly at different times and places.

“Back in July this year, a call came in for an attempted burglary (at a marijuana shop near the freeway,) Police Chief Bill Benner said. “The officers and the owner of the shop saw three individuals running from his place of business back toward the freeway and crawl under the fence and get into a car parked along the freeway and speed away.”

There was also security video footage of the incident, but nothing that could identify the make or model of the car.

Benner said the responding officers interviewed the business owner and went out to the fence where the getaway car had been parked and found a partially consumed bottle of beer, still cold to the touch.

“That was secured as evidence and given to the crime lab for analysis,” Benner said. “We were able to tie the DNA from that bottle to a crime that happened months later in Moses Lake, a shooting incident at the fairgrounds that now ties that particular suspect to that bottle that was found along the freeway.”

Benner said the evidence was circumstantial, “but we’re starting to tie things together: The bottle was a Modelo Beer bottle.”

“Reviewing records, we found that a burglary had occurred just a couple hours prior to a burglary in Warden, and Modelo Beer was stolen from that incident, so we’re starting to tie things together a little bit on the activity of that evening,” Benner said. “Another thing was found at the scene of our call was footprints that were left on the door as the suspects all tried to kick it in. Photographs were made of those footprints, and additional photos were made of the footprints when they went under the fence and up to the car. So as a means of tying those footprints with the car we’ve got a little bit more evidence,”

Benner said his department requested Moses Lake police provide a photo of the shoe footprint of the man arrested for the fairgrounds shooting, whose DNA matched the individual allegedly involved in the shooting.

“We’re at a point where we would like to interview the individual, and if staffing allows, we will do that,” Benner said.

Benner said two women were involved in the shooting, “One individual was shot in the back and as I understand it, is doing very well, (while) the other was shot through the leg and has some rough rotor recovery,”

Benner said the scientific evidence that can be collected at a crime scene, “is incredible. It’s a amazing what they can do.”

Benner has been active in law enforcement for more than a few years, but younger officers have had opportunity to ponder the instruction regarding evidence they receive in the police academy.

“The stuff about crime scene investigations, in particular at the academy, we touched on a little bit,” said Ritzville Patrolman Brandon Beckgmeiner. “You’re going to go back to your department and learn your department’s specific way how you’re going to go about it and those policies and procedures. What we did at the academy was we talked about a really brief overview of the investigative process of securing your scene and how to start identifying evidence and the proper documentation and collection of it.”

Beckgmeiner said officers from Spokane Police Department set up a mock crime scene for the academy trainees with demonstration evidence, “for us to find and categorize. So really for physical evidence, that’s about all we had at the academy.”

Thing are up to date at the police academy, though. Beckgmeiner described instruction to make the trainees aware of how to do a preservation request of social media sites, which occasionally become linked to criminal activity.

“Law enforcement can go in and put a request that says, ‘We’re working on a case right now and believe there may be evidence or pertinent information in this social media account, web history, cell phone history, so we’re just asking you to preserve that data.’”