Deputies, suspect injured in Blanchard shooting
(LOREN BENOIT/Hagadone News Network) Idaho State Police troopers talk to a fellow officer at a police roadblock at the intersection of Mountain View and Blanchard Elk roads on Monday afternoon in Blanchard. Two deputies were shot and seriously injured earlier in the day while serving an arrest warrant for a male suspect. The suspect was also shot. Both deputies and the suspect were transported to Kootenai Health. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
BLANCHARD — Two Bonner County sheriff’s deputies were injured Monday in an exchange of gunfire with an armed suspect, who was also injured.
“There were just a lot of prayers for these men. They are going to make it,” Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said during a press briefing at Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene, where the two deputies underwent surgery.
The names of the deputies and the man who allegedly opened fire on them were not disclosed on Monday because notifications to respective family members were still ongoing, according to the Kootenai County Critical Incident Task Force, which is heading up the investigation into the gunbattle.
It’s standard protocol for an outside agency to investigate shootings that involve law enforcement to avoid appearances of a conflict of interest.
Bonner County EMS officials were summoned to an advanced life-support call at 780 Mountain View Road at 11:33 a.m., an EMS rum report stated. Mountain View Road is located off the Blanchard-Elk Road, near the Washington state border.
Authorities in Kootenai County said the deputies were serving a warrant when they exchanged gunfire with the man, who was also taken to Kootenai Health for surgery.
“We currently have no reason to believe anyone else from the public is in any danger,” sheriff’s Det. Dennis Stinebaugh said in a news release.
There has been police activity in the 700 block of Mountain View, according to online Bonner 911 dispatch reports, which were removed from the web by Monday night.
Prior to its removal, however, the dispatch log showed that deputies were summoned to the 700 block for a welfare check on Dec. 16, 2016. A family offense in that block was reported on Jan. 10, 2017 and one of the deputies who was reportedly involved in Monday’s shooting conducted follow-up on the family offense call on Jan. 11, 2017.
The purported suspect, a Blanchard man, has two cases that are filed under seal in Bonner County, an indication that criminal charges and/or a court’s protection order may be pending.
Outside of motorist-related infractions and a misdemeanor, the suspect has no prior criminal record in Idaho, according to the state supreme court data repository.
It’s unclear if the suspect will make an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court today.
“I don’t know when he will be medically cleared,” Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said on Monday.
It’s the second time in two years sheriff’s deputies have been fired upon in western Bonner County. Steven Michael Gervasi is accused of shooting at Deputy Alex Hughes during a high-speed chase that crossed into Washington on May 9, 2016.
Hughes narrowly escaped the incoming gunfire and Gervasi, 25, is awaiting trial in Pend Oreille County Superior Court on a charge of attempted second-degree murder.
Staff writers Mary Malone, Caroline Lobsinger and Maureen Dolan contributed to this report.