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Spokane Police say three young men were taken into custody on the roof of Salk Middle School early Tuesday morning and are now facing multiple charges.
At around 11 p.m. Monday night, officers responded with a Spokane Public School Security officer to Salk Middle School in the 6400 block of north Alberta because of an alarm. There were multiple trips inside the school, so officers called for a K9 to assist in the search of the large facility that is still under construction. K9 handler Officer Todd Belitz and his partner, K9 Zeus, spent two hours searching the school with officers, while alarms in the school continued to be tripped in areas not occupied by officers. A number of additional officers were called to the scene to make sure the juvenile males were not able to leave the area undetected.
Officers discovered the suspects had been into the kitchen, opened containers of spices, oats and other pantry items, and spread them all over the school, filling drinking fountains and hallways with them. A 5-gallon bucket of paint was also found overturned in the kitchen and a soap dispenser had been torn off the wall. Damage estimates were in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Just after 1:30 a.m., officers spotted the three juveniles on the roof of the school and were able to take them into custody without incident. All three young men were booked into Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center for 2nd Degree Burglary and 1st Degree Malicious Mischief.
(story: Matt Pusatory, KHQ Local News Web Producer; photos: KHQ.com)