Two students arrested after attack on WSU professor

SEATTLE -- Pullman police have arrested two Washington State University students in connection with an assault that seriously injured a WSU professor March 30. A search is on for two more suspects, police said Thursday.

Professor David Warner, 41, has been in Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane with head injuries since the incident nearly two weeks ago. Warner’s family posted on Facebook Thursday that Warner is improving, that he is awake and sitting up.

Police said  anonymous tips led to the arrests of students Madeline Fouts, 21, of Snohomish, and Joshua Nantz, 22, of Mukilteo.

Nantz is charged with first-degree assault and Fouts faces charges or providing criminal assistance and providing false names to police.

"Upon initial contact, she (Fouts)  was being less than cooperative with us and she was providing false information to us, which we have since been able to discredit,” said Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins.

"We have not arrested her for assault. So at this point in the investigation, it appears that she was with the other suspects and she did render some assistance to the suspects that were involved in the assault.”

Fouts was released from police custody but investigators are still looking for two more suspects caught on surveillance cameras. There's a $10,000 reward for information leading to those arrests.

According to The Spokesman-Review, Warner received severe head injuries after he tried to break up a fight in a parking lot outside of Adams Mall on College Hill in Pullman.

The newspaper said police believe Warner was drinking the night of the assault, but his blood-alcohol levels have not been released. The attack happened shortly after last call at local bars.

The Spokesman-Review said Warner reportedly intervened in an argument between one of his friends and a group of college-age people, but he was punched and fell to the ground.

Jenkins told the newspaper that Warner’s friend could not remember the moments leading up to the fight or why  punches were thrown, and that investigators believe alcohol was a factor for the lack of memory.

Warner teaches in the WSU Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies.