'Shots fired' reports often increase as hunting season picks up

By DREW LAWSON

Staff Reporter

SPOKANE COUNTY — The Spokane County Sheriff’s office tends to receive more calls concerning gunshots being fired during hunting season.

“I think as hunting season approaches, we start getting more people reporting sounds of gunshots out in the county, to where people are able to shoot and can do so safely,” Corporal Mark Gregory said. “As the hunting season starts, then people are obviously hearing shots due to people actually out hunting itself and we do tend to get calls at that time too.”

Three reports of shots fired have been made in Medical Lake since hunting season began to get rolling in September after none during July and August. However, 2019 was nearly reversed, as three shots fired reports were made during the summer months and none were made in the fall.

“We still get these types of calls in the middle of the summer too, because people are out shooting,” Gregory said. “It just does seem to increase as hunting season starts to approach, and it tends to happen during the hunting season and the beginning of the year to early spring it seems to die off a little bit.”

He added that reports of shots fired are more common in the open areas of the county where people can shoot more. These areas include vast acreage of brush land and forest lines, much of which are in the western and southern parts of the county, as well as north of Spokane city limits.

People may not be used to hearing gunshots near their property and feel compelled to notify authorities, Gregory said.

“A couple, three guys get together and want to go shooting on their property (or) their friend’s property .. maybe they go out early and somebody’s not used to hearing (gunshots) at 9 o’clock in the morning, so they become concerned,” Gregory said.

He emphasized that the sheriff’s department wants citizens to report those calls if they feel concerned or uneasy.

“I’m not trying to dissuade anybody from reporting, but a lot of these calls don’t end up being anything nefarious or illegal,” Gregory said. “They end up being people that are out hunting or preparing to hunt in our beautiful outdoors.”

Surrounding Medical Lake limits to the west, south and east lie unincorporated areas of the county where safe shooting is permissible, provided anyone shooting on private property receives consent from the property owner. Hunting is permissible in any game management unit with consent from private property owners, provided the hunter has the necessary tag.

Much of the West Plains lies outside the county’s “No Shooting Zones,” with exceptions being the city limits of Medical Lake, Cheney and Airway Heights and Fairchild Air Force Base.

Shooting and hunting in county parks is illegal.

Drew Lawson can be reached at drew@cheneyfreepress.com.