Shooting death ruled a suicide

SANDPOINT — A Clark Fork man’s shooting death last fall is being ruled a suicide.

Jacob “Jake” Michael Chamberlain was found with a gunshot wound to his right temple in a detached garage in the 200 block of West Sixth Avenue on Oct. 11.

Chamberlain, 21, showed faint signs of life when deputies and emergency medical personnel arrived, but he was pronounced dead after being flown to Kootenai Health hospital in Coeur d’Alene, according to Bonner County sheriff’s investigative reports.

Chamberlain reportedly shot himself with a semiautomatic pistol as a deputy approached the garage while investigating a hit-and-run collision that occurred earlier that night in Clark Fork. The deputy heard the gunshot as he neared the garage, which was converted into a residence, the reports said.

The deputy was drawn to the residence because the suspect vehicle, an Oldsmobile sedan, was parked there. The vehicle’s owner, Bryan Lamoine Kenitzki, also lived in the modest dwelling.

Kenitzki, 32, told investigators that Chamberlain pulled a gun from his waistband and shot himself. Kenitzki was arrested for leaving the scene of a property-damage crash and failing to report striking an unattended vehicle.

In follow-up interviews, Kenitzki admitted that the Lorcin 9-millimeter pistol actually belonged to him and said he lied because the weapon was not registered to him, but stuck by his statements that Chamberlain took his own life.

Both men had been drinking and had alcohol concentrations that were more than two times over the legal limit to drive, police and autopsy reports said.

Kenitzki told investigators that Chamberlain paced the residence and appeared worried that he would be implicated in the hit-and-run collision.

Court records show Chamberlain was arrested the previous weekend after allegedly attacking several patrons of the Cabinet Mountain Bar & Grill.

Investigators theorized that Chamberlain was fearful about being implicated in the hit-and-run and did not want to return to jail, a police report said.

Some members of Chamberlain’s family suspected Kenitzki may have shot Chamberlain while fooling around with the pistol, while others told investigators that Chamberlain had struggled with bouts of depression and had a heart condition that caused additional stress in his life, the reports said.

“The evidence from this investigation, including the trajectory of the bullet path, witness statements, and the impression of the investigating officers combined with the determination of suicide by the Kootenai County Coroner’s Office lead me to the conclusion that suicide was the most likely event that occurred on October 11, 2013,” Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said in charging decision memo issued earlier this month.

Barring any additional evidence that may come to light, Marshall said the investigation is closed.