Attempted murder charges filed

By KEITH KINNAIRD

News editor

SANDPOINT — Attempted first-degree murder charges are pending against a Blanchard man who shot and seriously wounded two Bonner County sheriff’s deputies.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said Adam Deacon Foster is scheduled to make an initial appearance on the new charges today in the magistrate division of 1st District Court. Marshall said on Wednesday that Foster is being held in lieu of $2 million bond.

Foster is already being held at the jail in Kootenai County on misdemeanor battery charges that brought deputies Justin Penn, Michael Gagnon and William Craffey to Foster’s home at 780 Mountain View Drive on Jan. 16. Kootenai County sheriff’s officials, who are heading up the shooting investigation, said gunfire was exchanged between Foster and the deputies.

Penn was released from Kootenai Health on Jan. 19 and Gagnon was released from the same facility on Jan. 23. Craffey was not injured in the shootout.

Foster, 30, remains held at the jail in Kootenai County and is expected to remain there while the case is pending. Foster is being held there to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest and head off claims that he is being mistreated.

During an initial appearance on the battery charges during a hearing in Kootenai County on Wednesday, Foster said Bonner County has a “grudge” against him.

The battery charges against Foster have been pending for the past year, court records show. A warrant for his arrest was issued in January 2016.

Foster is accused of pushing and slapping a relative who told deputies that Foster was using methamphetamine and had grown threatening and paranoid. Foster accused former acquaintances of slipping him meth and poisoning his food when he was living in Washington state, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The relative said she no longer felt safe in her home and that Foster sometimes carried a gun, court records indicate. She also stated that Foster threatened to kill her and law enforcement officers if any were summoned.

Several days after the physical confrontation, deputies went to serve the citations on Foster, but he retreated into the residence and would not come out. Deputies returned with a warrant a year later, court records show.