Spokane County names two deputies killed responding to domestic violence call

Spokane County's sheriff's office has publicly identified the two deputies killed while responding to a domestic violence call south of the city last week, closing out a chapter of a shooting that left five people dead and reopened questions about the risks deputies face answering calls to isolated homes.

Deputies Mason Acheson and Parker Perry died of gunshot wounds suffered on Nov. 3 after a man barricaded inside a house near Spangle, a farming community of fewer than 300 people about 20 miles southwest of Spokane, opened fire as a SWAT team tried to reach people believed trapped inside, according to Fox 13 Seattle and KHQ Right Now. In all, the gunman, two women found dead on the property, and the two deputies were killed; a sixth person, a woman who ran to a neighbor's house for help, survived with non-life-threatening injuries.

A Call for Help, Then Gunfire

Deputies were sent to a home on South Smythe Road around 2:25 p.m. on Nov. 3 after a woman arrived at a neighboring house with a gunshot wound and said her brother had shot her, according to the sheriff's office's account. Investigators later said the man, identified as 37-year-old Ryan T. Larsen of Spangle, had already killed two other people in the house before deputies arrived and that he had a history of weapons violations and eluding police, which KHQ reported citing The Spokesman-Review. The two victims found dead on the property were identified as Suzanne Larsen, 72, and Rebecca Larsen, 45.

A SWAT team was called in, and around 3:15 p.m. deputies moved toward the house to try to rescue people they believed were still inside. The gunman opened fire from inside the home, critically wounding Acheson and Perry, who were flown to a Spokane hospital. Both were later confirmed dead: Acheson succumbed to his injuries within days, and Perry was removed from life support on Nov. 6 after doctors said he would not survive, according to the Associated Press account carried by Yahoo News. Perry's family chose to donate his organs.

Two Deputies, Two Families

Acheson joined the Spokane County Sheriff's Office in July 2022 after eight years as a Washington State Patrol trooper and firearms instructor. He had enlisted in the Washington Army National Guard in 2011 and deployed to Poland in 2021 and 2022, and he served as a sniper on the county's SWAT team. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Perry joined the sheriff's office in May 2020 after earning a business administration degree from Carroll College in Montana. He had served in the Washington National Guard since 2017, rising to captain as a military intelligence officer, and joined the SWAT team in 2022 before becoming a K-9 deputy in 2025, partnered with a dog named Brego, who responded with him to the call. Perry is survived by his wife and two children, with a third child due soon, according to the KIRO 7 News report on the sheriff's office's statement.

"Although we know our Deputies knew the risks, they bravely moved toward danger to protect others they did not know."

That statement, issued by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, was echoed by Sheriff John Nowels, who told reporters the day of the shooting, "It's a very tragic day in Spokane County." Gov. Bob Ferguson also issued a statement after the deputies' deaths were confirmed: "They served their community with honor and heroism. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten."

A Community Response

Local television stations reported that flags were lowered across Spokane in the deputies' honor, and the Behind the Badge Foundation activated its Line-of-Duty Death Response Team to support the affected families. A memorial fund set up through Canopy Credit Union is accepting donations for the deputies' families, including through Venmo and by check at the Spokane Valley Police Department or the sheriff's office.

One local outlet reported that the Nov. 3 shooting marked the first fatal shooting of a law-enforcement officer in Spokane County in more than four decades. Domestic violence calls are widely considered among the most unpredictable and dangerous calls deputies and officers respond to, precisely because the person they are trying to help and the person posing the threat are often inside the same home.

An Investigation Now Underway

The shooting is being investigated by the Spokane Independent Investigative Response Team, a multi-agency unit formed by the Spokane Police Department, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Patrol to handle cases involving law enforcement and deadly force, under a protocol published by the Spokane Police Department. Independent investigations of this kind are required under Washington's Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act, codified at WAC 139-12, which sets standards meant to keep such reviews independent of the agencies whose officers were involved.

The Washington State Patrol, which leads these investigations statewide and periodically posts case updates to its own public releases page, has not yet released a timeline for when its findings in the Spangle case will be complete. Once finished, the findings are typically forwarded to the county prosecutor's office, which decides whether any further legal action is warranted — a question complicated here by the fact that the only surviving suspect, Larsen, was found dead at the scene.

For now, Spokane County is left to bury two deputies and plan for the children they leave behind, while investigators work to reconstruct the final minutes inside a house on a quiet rural road that, for one afternoon, became the site of one of the deadliest law-enforcement shootings in the region's recent history.