Spokane Man Kills Waitress, Himself -- Hotel Restaurant's Manager Also Shot, Wounded By Patron

SPOKANE - A frequent hotel restaurant patron, apparently angry at a waitress who disliked serving him because of his body odor, shot and killed her yesterday and wounded a manager, then killed himself.

The gunman, a 78-year-old Spokane man, suffered a gunshot wound to the head, police spokesman Dick Cottam said. His identity was not released.

The waitress, Marie Vanslate, 49, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, died shortly after noon at Sacred Heart Medical Center, 35 minutes after the late morning shootings at the Silver Grill restaurant in the lobby of the Ridpath Hotel.

The restaurant manager, Ronald McDonald, 59, of Spokane, was in serious but stable condition after surgery for a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, Sacred Heart spokeswoman Marilyn Thordarson said.

Restaurant patrons said the man was a regular customer who apparently was angry at the waitress. She disliked serving him because he smelled strongly of urine, said Laurie Kriet, owner of an Insty Prints printing and copying shop inside the hotel.

"He had money, but had trouble with incontinence. He was a non-tipper," Kriet said. "Marie didn't like serving him. The other waitress would. That didn't sit well with him."

An off-duty Spokane police officer working security at the hotel heard two shots and then saw a man with a weapon in his hand, Cottam said.

The officer told hotel employees and patrons to take cover, then pulled his own service revolver and ordered the man to drop the weapon. Instead, the man walked into a corner of the restaurant and the officer heard another shot and found the gunman dead, Cottam said.

The gunman's body was removed from the restaurant about three hours after the shootings.

Gerald Stotler, Ridpath director of sales, said the shooting was a shock, especially in light of a similar shooting with multiple victims last Friday at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, about 100 miles west.