Shootings ring in summer season

COEUR d’ALENE — Three shootings and a string of unusual criminal activity have marked the beginning of the summer season in North Idaho.

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office responded to 713 calls for service over the Memorial Day weekend, almost 100 more calls than during the same period last year.

Though law enforcement typically sees a spike in crime between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the recent holiday weekend was uncommonly hectic.

“Deputies who have worked here for 25 years have said they have never seen the opening of our season so busy,” Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said Friday. “I’m concerned for what the summer holds for us.”

Police arrested two Washington men this week in connection with the fatal shooting of Gabriel R. Casper, a 20-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident.

The shooting occurred around 5:15 p.m. on Memorial Day.

Within two days, detectives arrested Matthew J. Holmberg, 19, of Spokane Valley, and 23-year-old Liberty Lake resident Dennen T.G. Fitterer-Usher.

Both men were booked into the Spokane County Jail and are awaiting extradition to Idaho.

More than 30 percent of summer arrests involve people who are visiting North Idaho from other areas, Norris said.

“A lot of our bookings from Memorial Day to Labor Day are from the Spokane area,” he said.

That includes Jonathon D. Lewis, a 33-year-old Spokane resident who was arrested May 30 after allegedly leading Idaho State Police on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle.

Lewis, who police say was under the influence of marijuana and meth, grabbed a hatchet and fled on foot after a spike strip slowed his vehicle.

He reportedly threw the hatchet at a deputy, hitting the side of a patrol vehicle, before police subdued him with a stun gun.

Lewis is charged with aggravated assault, battery upon an officer, malicious injury to property, eluding and grand theft by receiving stolen property, all felonies.

He is also charged with driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false information to police, all misdemeanors.

He remains in jail on $100,000 bond.

Meanwhile, a 41-year-old Rathdrum man accidentally shot himself in the abdomen on Memorial Day. He was transported to Kootenai Health with non-life threatening injuries.

Police shot a man Thursday night who reportedly expressed suicidal thoughts and threatened to kill deputies.

In a recording obtained by The Press, the man told a 911 dispatcher that he was armed with a handgun and intended to shoot or be shot by police.

“You guys have a choice,” he said in the recorded call. “A deputy dies or I die. When they get here, either I shoot at them or they shoot at me.”

The man remains in stable condition at Kootenai Health.

A 2014 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found seasonal patterns in crime.

Rape, sexual assault and aggravated assault rates are reportedly higher in the summer than in most other seasons, while simple assault rates are higher in the fall and robbery rates show no seasonal pattern.

Norris said multiple factors contribute to seasonal spikes in crime, including increased alcohol consumption.

As locals and visitors alike emerge from lockdown, Norris said law enforcement is preparing to handle an influx of calls for service.

“We should prepare for people wanting to come out of that COVID period and get outside,” he said.