Divers retrieve possible murder weapon in Schur killing | News

Acting on a tip, divers have recovered an AK-47 assault rifle from the Spokane River that may have been the murder weapon in the killing of Marcus Schur.

The Whitman County Sheriff's Office believes the AK-47 was the weapon used to kill Schur.

Divers had to wait for water levels on the Spokane River to drop before searching for the rifle. When they were finally able to get in the water, they made several dives in the vicinity of the TJ Meenach Bridge, where investigators were tipped off the rifle had been dumped in the river, to search for the weapon.

The rifle was successfully located and recovered Tuesday morning.

Schur's body was found by a fisherman in Bonnie Lake in late March; a criminal investigation uncovered he had been shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2011. Witnesses later said that two men broke into a home near Malden on Dec. 27 and punched one person while a second -- Schur -- fled from the home.

Schur was shot and killed outside the home and his body was dumped into Bonnie Lake.

Whitman County Sheriff Bret Meyers said initially the case was investigated as a burglary because they had no additional information on the shooting. Schur was never declared a missing person because he had several warrants out for his arrest and authorities said it was common for him to go into hiding for weeks at a time.

After Schur's body was discovered in Bonnie Lake in late March the Whitman County coroner conducted an autopsy and confirmed Schur died from massive blood loss due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Four men -- Travis Carlon, Eli Lindsey and brothers Frank and Daniel Lazcano -- were subsequently arrested in the case.

The Lazcano brothers were arrested on murder charges for killing Schur while Lindsey and Carlon were arrested for rendering criminal assistance.