Courthouse lockdown nets a wanted man

COEUR d’ALENE — Police and deputies descended on a locked- down Coeur d’Alene courthouse with their weapons drawn Tuesday morning before arresting a Sandpoint man who allegedly flashed a gun at a driver on Interstate 90 earlier in the day.

Jared R. Vansickle, 38, was arrested for aggravated assault around 9:30 without incident in the foyer of the old district courthouse along Garden Avenue.

Vansickle’s arrest lifted a lockdown on the court campus that had been in place while state police troopers, Coeur d’Alene police and county deputies searched the area for the suspect. Vansickle had gone to court to support his girlfriend, who had a misdemeanor probation hearing, according to reports.

State police had received a call a half-hour earlier from an eastbound motorist on I-90, who said that a man behind the wheel of a 2000 Ford F-150 pickup truck heading into Coeur d’Alene had pointed a firearm at another motorist in a road rage incident.

Vansickle was alone when the incident occurred, witnesses told police.

The pickup was later located near the court campus in Coeur d’Alene, and in an effort to find Vansickle, who was wearing a red flannel shirt, jeans and a ball cap, authorities locked down the buildings while court was in session.

Vansickle tried leaving the old district courthouse around 9:30 when he was detained by a security guard. About a dozen police, some with their firearms drawn, ordered Vansickle out of the courthouse foyer with his hands raised. He was arrested outside and transported to the Kootenai County Jail.

Vansickle’s criminal record contains misdemeanor traffic violations. Felony aggravated assault is punishable by a maximum of five years behind bars and a fine not exceeding $5,000, or by both.

A misdemeanor aggravated assault conviction — one in which no firearm is used — includes a three-month jail term and a $1,000 fine.