Former Spokane bull rider accused of killing Providence nurse is declared unfit to stand trial

May 16—A former Spokane bull rider accused of killing his grandmother's nurse because he thought the nurse was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks is unfit to stand trial, court records show.

A judge civilly committed Mitchell Chandler, 35, to a health services hospital because he is unable to assist in his own defense. Court records say he has a history of symptoms akin to schizophrenia, threatening behavior and brain trauma from head injuries sustained as a bull rider.

Chandler was charged with murder in 2022 when he was accused of shooting and killing his grandmother's home nurse, Douglas Brant. Brant had worked as a Providence nurse since 2005, mostly on the West Side. He spent his last four years working in Spokane as a senior home health nurse and certified wound treatment associate at Providence Visiting Nurses Association Home Health.

Jean Chandler, Mitchell Chandler's grandmother, told police Brant arrived at her house Dec. 1, 2022, at Cascade Mobile Home Park, 2311 W. 16th Ave. It was Brant's first visit to the home Jean Chandler shares with her husband, Willard Chandler, and their grandson, according to documents.

The Chandler couple and Brant were in the living room during the appointment while Mitchell Chandler was cooking in the kitchen, Jean Chandler told police. The kitchen is next to the living room, so Mitchell Chandler would have been able to hear Brant and his grandparents conversing while he was cooking, court records said.

Mitchell Chandler walked from the kitchen to Brant and shot Brant while standing over him, documents said. She said she tried to speak to her grandson, but he walked away without talking to her. The handgun was possibly a revolver with white tape on it, she told police.

Jean Chandler said her grandson left the residence and she called police.

Mitchell Chandler told detectives after his arrest he shot Brant in "self-defense" because he heard references in the kitchen to 9/11, terrorism, snipers and wire-tapping, court records show.

Since then, he has experienced auditory delusions, has continued to worry people involved in the Sept. 11 attacks are seeking to "get rid" of him and has voiced concerns about Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated former President John F. Kennedy. He also claimed he has sent signals to the White House, court records say.

Chandler denied having a mental illness and does not want to take medication, a competency evaluation shows.