SPOKANE, Wash. – A parking lot altercation left a local music studio devastated a little over a week ago.
According to security footage provided to NonStop Local, a man appears to get into a fight near his car, parked right outside of Voice Works Spokane, a music school owned and operated by Marsha Schlanger. The car, driven by someone while another person appears to be attacking them from the passenger seat, then guns straight into the store, leaving smashed glass and broken instruments in its path.
The footage then shows another man enter the store, take a folding chair and start hitting the driver of the car. Then one more man shows up, grabs a fire hydrant and starts smashing the car’s back windows. When the altercation ended, the driver, who had already busted out the back wall of the studio, attempted to make a three-point turn to drive out, busting a hole through another wall.
“It’s just surreal,” Schlanger said. “It’s hard to get your mind around the level of violence that happened in just those few moments.”
Schlanger has had to shut down since the incident occurred on Oct. 15, as the studio remains with broken glass, damaged instruments and some dried blood from the fight. While her studio has been in her North Spokane location for years, she doesn’t know if she’s going to reopen there, given the crowd that comes from a bar that also occupies the strip mall.
“Sometimes I’d stop by after a Saturday night and there’s vomit in the parking lot, broken glass,” she said. “I’ve actually had people inebriated, individuals come into my studio during class and cause disruption.”
However, Schlanger does want to re-open eventually. She’s currently in the process of working with her insurance company to assess the damage and see how much she can recover. In addition to replacing the equipment and potentially finding a new studio space, Schlanger currently is also losing money she could’ve been making by working. Still, she’s determined to overcome this obstacle.
“I have to continue,” she said. “I feel like music is such a necessary thing for kids and for people. I want to find a way to continue.”
