Chase suspect remains on run; no identification yet

Identifying the male suspect who allegedly led police on a chase on Tuesday that resulted in gunfire may take awhile.

The man who ditched a stolen car on Cougar Gulch Road remained on the run on Thursday.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office is obtaining fingerprints from the green 2004 Kia Rio that was driven by the suspect and had been stolen from the area of 12th and Sherman Avenue in Coeur d'Alene on April 10.

But KCSO Lt. Stu Miller said obtaining results from the state lab can take as long as three months.

"The detectives have no idea who this guy is," Miller said on Thursday. "We won’t know if they are good fingerprints (obtained) until the state lab sends us a return. It's quite a process. We also have to obtain fingerprints from the car owner and anyone that they may have had in their car so we can rule them out."

The suspect is possibly in his 30s, unshaven and was last seen wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt. He allegedly intentionally rammed an Idaho State Police car near U.S. 95 south of Coeur d'Alene during the chase. The trooper was not injured.

At least one gunshot was fired during the incident, but exactly how many shots were fired and by who hasn't been released.

A Cougar Gulch resident told The Press a deputy told her neighbor the suspect fired a shot.

The owner of the stolen vehicle told police she doesn't have any idea who would have stolen her car.

"She went into a downtown business, and when she came out, the vehicle was gone," said Coeur d'Alene Police Spokesman Jared Reneau.

The active on-site search in Cougar Gulch for the suspect was suspended on Wednesday morning.

The stolen car triggered police's BOSS driver's license identification system twice as it passed by Interstate 90 on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning.

The car apparently exited on Spokane Street or Highway 41 in Post Falls on Monday and couldn't be located by police.

When the car triggered the system again around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, an ISP trooper was in the vicinity and chased the suspect after he allegedly refused to stop.

Those with information are urged to call the KCSO at 446-1300 or leave an anonymous tip at www.kcsheriff.com under the “Contact” section.

The suspect drove southbound on U.S. 95 to the Mica Grade about 8 miles south of Coeur d’Alene.

The pursuit then went north on U.S. 95 to Cougar Gulch Road. After abandoning the car, the suspect fled into a forested area.

Multiple agencies searched for the suspect from the ground and air.