Post Falls fugitive arrested on assault and weapons charges

POST FALLS — A multi-agency SWAT team arrested a fugitive in Post Falls  this morning.

According to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were patrolling in the area of 1358 E. 16th Ave. around 1 a.m. when they saw James L. Oliver Jr., 58, inside his apartment at that address.

The deputies were in the area looking for Oliver, who was allegedly involved in an assault with a firearm and felony malicious injury to property at that location on January 20.

Due to the incident, Oliver had active warrants for felony malicious injury to property, aggravated assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.

According to a press release, the deputies attempted contact with Oliver, however, he would not acknowledge them or exit his residence and instead turned out the lights. After approximately an hour of attempting to have Oliver exit the residence by use of public address systems, detectives obtained a search warrant for the residence to locate Oliver and additional evidence.

Deputies said Oliver has had multiple arrests over the past 40 years including assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession, trafficking marijuana and methamphetamine, cruelty to children, multiple domestic batteries and carrying concealed weapons without a permit. Additionally, the release said, Oliver made recent comments to “go out with a bang” and the SWAT team has been used to arrest Oliver in the past.

Therefore due to Oliver’s history and the recent event on Jan. 20 involving a weapon and his refusal to exit the residence when the deputies attempted to contact him the multi-agency SWAT team was called out to serve the search warrant on the residence and shortly after 8 a.m. Oliver exited the residence and was taken into custody.