Whitaker jailed on carjacking, robbery charges

NEWPORT — An Oldtown woman is in jail after she was arrested for allegedly stealing a rifle from one person and then carjacking another person.

Pend Oreille County officials say that Katie Whitaker, 29, flagged down a 22-year-old female near the intersection of Third and Warren streets in Newport at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. The victim told police that she had stopped to see what was wrong, and then Whitaker got into her 2006 Jeep Cherokee uninvited.

After refusing to give the suspect a ride and asking the suspect to get out, the victim said that Whitaker brandished a rifle case and ordered the victim out of her own vehicle. The victim got out and the suspect sped away.

While deputies responded to the victim’s 911 call, they also received a call from another person who said that a woman had broken into his car parked along the 300 block of S. Warren Street, stolen his rifle in its soft case, and ran away. Officials notified other agencies in the area to be on the lookout for the suspect and stolen vehicle. At approximately 11:30 p.m. a Washington state trooper located the carjacked vehicle at a bar in Spokane County.

Local deputies identified a woman matching the suspect’s description inside the bar. They learned that she had been attempting to sell the stolen vehicle and to give away the stolen rifle.

Spokane County deputies took Whitaker into custody, and she is now in the Pend Oreille County Jail. Police booked Whitaker on charges of first degree robbery, theft of a firearm, and two counts of vehicle prowls.