KCSO: Woman dies by suicide during traffic stop and arrest

COEUR d’ALENE — A woman died by suicide last week during a traffic stop where police arrested a man on drug trafficking charges, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

Last Friday, local law enforcement agencies conducted surveillance for Wyatt Warnken, a 31-year-old Post Falls resident who police described as a “known narcotics dealer.”

The KCSO Special Investigations Unit and Coeur d’Alene Police Department’s Community Action Team reportedly located Warnken as a passenger in a vehicle. Officers initiated a traffic stop on Seltice Way.

Because police believed Warnken to be armed, they made the stop with the assistance of the Kootenai County Sheriff/Coeur d’Alene Police Joint Agency SWAT Team.

“No traffic stop is routine,” Undersheriff Brett Nelson said Tuesday.

Police said they arrested Warnken without incident on charges of trafficking and delivering illegal substances and had detained the male driver when they heard a gunshot from inside the parked vehicle.

Nelson said the officers at the scene called for additional tactical resources.

Medical personnel removed a 30-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman from the car and rendered aid before transporting her to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Nelson said the woman’s death underscored how law enforcement often interact with community members during some of their most vulnerable moments. Even traffic stops can be unpredictable.

“It speaks to the desperation of that individual in that moment of their life,” Nelson said.

Warnken is charged with delivery of fentanyl, possession with intent to deliver fentanyl, trafficking methamphetamine and two counts of delivery of methamphetamine, all felonies. He is also charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm as a felon.

Warnken remains in jail on $500,000 bail.