Local News

One dead, one arrested after robbery near Tonasket

Associated Press

Apr 07, 2015

One person is dead after a man hitchhiking near Tonasket was robbed by three people in a van. One of the suspects later died after being tased as officers attempted to take him into custody.

The incident happened Saturday morning when a US Forest Service officer found a man on Highway 20 near Tonasket. The victim, a 47-year-old man from Sagle, Idaho, said he was hitchhiking when he was picked up two men and a woman in a van.

During the drive the two men started using drugs and started acting crazy, the victim told authorities. The man in the back seat pulled out a .22 caliber handgun, pointed it at the victim's head, and they stole $150 in cash and his fly rod from him, before letting him out of the van.

Deputies arrived and began searching for the van, which was later spotted by the forest service officer in a campground on Lyman Lake Road.

As he drove by the van pulled out and while calling for backup the officer began following the suspects. When a Washington State Patrol trooper arrived they attempted to pull the van over, but the driver accelerated away.

The chase went on for about five miles, coming to an abrupt end when the van hit a tree in the road on BIA 66 Road. The woman stayed with the van while the two men bolted into the woods.

The trooper and forest service officer caught up with one suspect, told him to stop several times before a taser was deployed. The man, identified as William Dick, 28, of Grand Coulee, was taken into custody but stopped breathing. CPR was begun, emergency personnel were called to the scene but Dick could not be revived.

The second male suspect, Kyle Cate, 23, of Okanogan, was taken into custody and, after being checked out at the hospital was booked into the Okanogan County Jail on charges of first degree armed robbery, felong eluding, driving with a suspended license and an unrelated felony warrant in Lincoln County.

The woman who was also in the vehicle was not arrested.

Authorities found drugs inside as well as around the vehicle however no weapon has been found.

An autopsy will be performed to determine Dick's cause of death. His family has been notified, and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.