By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
John Allen Booth Jr. is in custody in Spokane, Sheriff Steve Mansfield said this evening.
The Lewis County sheriff said he had few details to offer, but the suspect in the weekend triple homicide was picked up without incident, nobody was hurt, he said.
John A. Booth Jr.
The sheriff said his people will go over there tomorrow to pick Booth up.
U.S. Marshals found the 31-year-old fugitive at a home on West Gordon Street in Spokane late this afternoon, according to the U.S. Marshals Service in Spokane.
Their task force and members of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office went there around 6 p.m., according to Supervising Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Doty.
“We went to the house, surrounded it and he came out and surrendered,” Doty said this evening.
Booth Jr. has been the subject of an extensive manhunt since early Saturday morning when four people were found shot – three fatally – in a home in the Onalaska-Salkum area. Sheriff Mansfield has said detectives believe the slayings involved a drug debt collection.
The Onalaska man is charged with murder in the deaths of David J. West Sr. 52, and his son David J. West Jr., 16, who lived in the rambler and also Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. He is also charged with attempted murder in connection with a 51-year-old witness who was at the house. The U.S. Marshal’s Service identified her tonight as Denise Salts.
Doty said 15 or 20 law enforcement officers were on hand for the Spokane operation and Booth was taken into custody without incident.
The residence belonged to a man who likely didn’t know of Booth’s situation, according to Doty. He didn’t expect that individual would be in trouble.
“Apparently a gentleman he met that let him stay there,” he said.
The capture was coordinated by the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, a multi-state group just formed this month.
Doty said the task force began looking for Booth last night and did quite a bit of surveillance when they figured out where they believed Booth to be.
In a news release just before 10 p.m. tonight, the U.S. Marshals Service said the task force approached the residence and ordered all inhabitants to come out.
One adult male and Booth came out with their hands raised, according to the news release.
The agencies involved in tonight’s arrest – which may have occurred closer to 6:25 p.m. Doty said later this evening – also included Border Patrol, CBP Air and Marine, Washington state Department of Corrections and the Moses Lake Police Department.
U.S. Marshal Mike Kline of Eastern Washington said in the news release tonight’s arrest demonstrates the benefits of the outstanding working relationship between law enforcement agencies in the state.
“The hard work from all involved put a quick resolution to this tragic event, and that Mr. Booth will now stand trial for the crimes he is alleged to have committed,” Kline stated.
Booth was wanted on a Department of Corrections warrant and on a $10 million warrant out of Lewis County Superior Court.
He was on community supervision with DOC as he had just been released from prison in December where he served about five and a half years after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree assault for a Centralia incident. It was his third prison stay.
The state agency on Saturday activated its Southwest Community Response Unit, a group designed to apprehend former inmates wanted on warrants for violating the terms of their community supervision. The units in Seattle and Spokane began working with them as well, according to a spokesperson from DOC.
DOC Spokesperson Chad Lewis said earlier today the last time the units had a search this extensive was in November when they were looking for Maurice Clemmons, a felon under their supervision who gunned down four police officers in Lakewood.
Booth is currently in the Spokane County Jail.
When the DOC warrant was issued on Saturday, a similar warrant was issued for 28-year-old Ryan Joseph McCarthy, on information from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, according to Lewis.
Sheriff Mansfield has named McCarthy a person of interest in the case.
McCarthy was picked up about 1 a.m. on Sunday at a home in Redmond and taken Monday to the Lewis County Jail. McCarthy was released from prison on July 29, Lewis said.
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This news story was last updated at 11:08 p.m. on Wednesday August 25, 2010
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For background on the case, read previous stories here.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter