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MOSCOW SHOOTINGS: Witness recounts events; he gave updates to 911 dispatchers

By Omie Drawhorn, Daily News staff writer
May 20, 2007

Reid Wright of Moscow was enjoying a quiet evening reading in his basement Saturday night when he was startled by loud, popping noises.

“At first I thought they were fireworks,” he said.

He quickly determined he was hearing gunshots from the way the noises were sequenced.

“It raised my heart rate a little,” he said.

Wright and his roommate, Tonda Lark, live near the intersection of Fourth and Van Buren streets in Moscow, across from the First Presbyterian Church and the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, where a shooting spree that left three dead and two wounded took place Saturday night and Sunday morning.

The sounds woke Lark, who came out of his room pretty disoriented, Wright said.

“The sounds were really loud and really close,” said Wright, who called 911 and gave brief updates to dispatchers.

“We were looking out our front window with the lights off,” he said. “We saw a guy walking around. We weren’t sure if it was the shooter. We heard shots but (saw) no flashes.”

Wright and Lark saw the suspected shooter, who was dressed in a gray sweatshirt and wearing a baseball cap, walk down Fifth Street hill and hide behind the church sign.

“He walked across the lawn in front of the church toward Third Street,” Wright said.

The two moved toward the back of their house and looked into their backyard.

Wright said he heard three soft taps on one of the windows and he and Lark crept back toward the kitchen armed with golf clubs.

They heard the screen door creek open and Wright hid in the stairwell behind their refrigerator while Lark crouched on the floor. They could hear footsteps on the back porch, and someone shown a flashlight through the flag that was draped over a window.

Wright watched the doorknob turn, but the deadbolt was locked. They then heard retreating footsteps and someone shutting the screen door and stepping off the porch.

“We still aren’t sure if it was the police or the shooter, or who it was,” he said.

Terrified by what had just happened, Wright and Lark sat together on their couch all night, still armed with golf clubs and unable to get much sleep.

Wright awoke at about 6 a.m. to the sound of a police officer using a bull horn to tell the shooter to come out of the church with his hands up.

He saw officers wearing tactical gear move through his backyard and a SWAT team exit an armored vehicle on Van Buren Street and enter the church.

An hour later, it was all over, but police told Wright and Lark to remain in their house.

Wright said he’s still shocked by the incident.

“The whole experience was like a movie,” he said. “It didn’t seem real.”

Omie Drawhorn can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 234, or by e-mail at odrawhorn at dnews.com.