Idaho Briefs August 8, 2010
Toddler exits car seat, gets behind wheel, crashes
MOUNTAIN HOME - Police in the southern Idaho town of Mountain Home say a 2-year-old boy left in a running vehicle got out of his car seat and put the vehicle in gear and crashed through the glass doors and full-length window walls of a business.Police say the vehicle also had another infant inside but neither child was injured in the crash on Friday that smashed the front of Big Smoke on American Legion Blvd.
Police say the children's 25-year-old mother left the vehicle running while she went into the shop to pick up some items.Big Smoke Manager Garry Swatzel says he had just installed new glass doors the day before.
Off-duty officer's weapon discharge injures 3 BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho State Police are investigating what is being described as an accidental shooting involving the 9mm handgun of an off-duty Emmett police officer that injured a woman and two boys, ages 2 and 3.
ISP Captain Steve Richardson says the gun discharged one bullet Friday morning in a Gem County residence, injuring the three people.Police are declining to release more information, including the relationship of the people involved and who had the gun when it discharged.
Police say the three who were injured were taken by private vehicle to Walter Knox Memorial Hospital in Emmett, where the woman and 3-year-old were treated and released.The 2-year-old was taken by private vehicle to Saint Alphonsus Hospital in Boise for more treatment. Police say his injuries are not life threatening.
Names have not been released.Police: High-reaching graffiti artist caught
POCATELLO - Authorities say they have caught a graffiti artist whose "BZR" mark has been appearing atop some of the highest and hardest-to-reach places on buildings and signs in the southeastern Idaho city of Pocatello.Authorities say 19-year-old Ryan P. Hanson of Pocatello has been issued a summons to appear on two misdemeanor counts of malicious injury to property.
Pocatello Police Lt. Roger Schei says Hanson has admitted to putting graffiti on two businesses. Schei says Hanson could face additional vandalism charges.Merchants offered a $500 reward for help in catching a person they dubbed the "BZR Bandit" after being irked by having to spend money to paint over the tough-to-reach graffiti.
Hanson could not be reached by The Associated Press on Saturday.Everett, Bevilaqua win USAT Idaho triathlon crowns
EMMETT - Kevin Everett was the overall male winner of the Emmett's Most Excellent Idaho State Triathlon Championships, beating his nearest rival by eight minutes.Everett, a professional from Boise, finished Saturday's race with a time of 1 hour, 51 minutes, 49 seconds, over the Olympic distance course.
Kate Bevilaqua, an Australian professional living in Idaho, won the women's race with a time of 2 hours, 12 minutes, 19 seconds.Competitors in the USA Triathlon-sanctioned event swam nearly a mile, biked 26 miles and ran 6.2 miles along southeastern Idaho's Payette River.In all, about 600 racers competed in all events in the ninth annual race in Emmett, for a total of $2,800 in prize money.
Crews battle rash of lightning-caused wildfires
BOISE - Fire crews are battling several wildfires that were touched off by lightning and fueled by strong winds.
Bureau of Land Mangement spokesman Brock Astle says the blazes started Friday in south-central Idaho.He says the largest, called the Big Draw Fire, had scorched about 9,000 acres near the Saylor Creek Training Range and was expected to be contained Saturday evening. There is also the 8,000-acre Bear Trap Fire east of Carey.
Several smaller blazes were also burning, but the statement didn't say if any structures were threatened.The wildfires are the latest in a rash of lightning-caused blazes to hit the state.
On Thursday, crews fought fires that had scorched a combined 24 square miles of southern Idaho desert.
- The Associated Press