No arrest after high-speed chase
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press Two Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies investigate an alleged stolen vehicle that was left at a Post Falls residence late Wednesday morning. Local law enforcement used K-9s to search the area for the suspected driver.</p>
POST FALLS - The search for a vehicle theft suspect after a chase from Hayden into Post Falls prompted three Post Falls schools to be locked down Wednesday morning.
The male suspect, described as wearing a brown hoodie and blue jeans, eluded police and Andor, PFPD's newest K-9, after running from the white Chevy Blazer in a neighborhood in the area of 21st Street and Lucas on the north side of Post Falls. There were no injuries.
"A citizen reported seeing the suspect pull up alongside a house, hop some fences and fleeing in the area of White Pine Park (on Spokane Street)," Post Falls police Chief Scot Haug said.
Police and Andor hadn't arrived on scene when the suspect fled the vehicle on foot.
During the search, Post Falls Middle School was locked down for an hour and a half as a precaution. Post Falls High was locked down for about 5 minutes and River City Middle School was in a modified lockdown - not allowing students outside, but running school as normal inside - for about 30 minutes.
PFHS was locked down briefly because, prior to the citizen's report, police spotted a vehicle matching the one the suspect was driving in the area of the high school. However, after the vehicle was pulled over it was discovered that a teacher was driving and not the suspect.
"The vehicle matched the description, but the officer immediately recognized it wasn't the same plates," Haug said.
Law enforcement said there is a person of interest in the case, but declined to release the person's name. The person of interest has a violent past, which prompted the school lockdowns.
A cell phone, possibly belonging to the suspect, was found by Andor during the hunt.
When law enforcement recovered the vehicle, it was discovered that it had stolen Washington license plates and had been stolen from a Spokane-area car lot. The vehicle was not damaged.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Department Maj. Ben Wolfinger said an off-duty officer spotted a suspicious vehicle in the area of Hayden Avenue and U.S. 95 at 9:20 a.m. Wolfinger didn't immediately have details on what made the vehicle suspicious.
"The off duty officer did not pursue or pull it over," Wolfinger said. "He merely called it in like any other citizen."
The suspect led law enforcement on a chase across the Rathdrum Prairie into Post Falls. PFPD assisted by setting up spike strips, which the suspect avoided.