Shotgun blast injures two
SANDPOINT - Two people were injured and one person was arrested after a shooting incident north of Clark Fork on Tuesday night.
Two males who were hit with birdshot from a shotgun blast were treated at Bonner General Hospital. Larry Dean Flanigan Jr., who allegedly fired the gunshot, was booked at the Bonner County Jail on five felony charges.
The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. outside Flanigan's home on East Mountain View Road, according to sheriff's officials.
Detective Sgt. Gary Johnston said in a news release that the altercation began after a Clark Fork High School basketball game with an exchange of threatening text messages. It later escalated when the alleged victims drove to Flanigan's home.
Flanigan, 19, allegedly fired a 12-gauge shotgun at the Subaru station wagon the group arrived in, shattering its rear window. Two people were struck with pellets from the shotgun blast.
Photographs entered into evidence during a probable cause hearing on Wednesday showed a pellet wound in the shoulder of one of the alleged victims. Another alleged victim appeared to have been struck in the neck by a pellet. One of those two subjects was also struck in the hand.
The injuries were described in court as non-life-threatening, although serious.
Flanigan is charged with two counts of aggravated battery for the two subjects who received wounds from the shotgun blast. He was further charged with three counts of aggravated assault because there were three other males in the vehicle when Flanigan opened fire on it.
Flanigan denied firing on the vehicle and said he fired into the air, according to Johnston's probable cause hearing testimony.
Judge Barbara Buchanan set Flanigan's bail at $100,000 and entered an order forbidding him from contacting the alleged victims in the case, court records show.
A preliminary hearing is pending in magistrate court. The hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial in 1st District Court.
Flanigan was on probation in a burglary case when the shooting happened. He has no prior record of violent offenses in Idaho, according to the state supreme court's online data repository.