Suspect identifed in sheriff’s office shooting that injured 3, including officer
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Alex Brizee, Idaho Statesman
WALLACE (Idaho Statesman) — Three people — including an officer — were injured in North Idaho after a gunman walked into a local sheriff’s office and opened fire the day after Christmas.
The suspect was shot and killed by law enforcement less than two hours after opening fire inside the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office in Wallace, Idaho, according to Sheriff William Eddy.
Eddy provided basic initial information during a news conference on Friday evening, informing reporters that many of their questions he just didn’t have answers to yet.
“Everything is preliminary at the time,” he told reporters, “and it’s probably going to change as it gets investigated further.”
Here’s what we do know so far:
What happened?
The gunman entered the lobby of the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office around 2:30 p.m. Friday and began firing, causing numerous law enforcement agencies from Idaho, Washington and Montana to respond, Eddy said. The suspect, who was armed with several guns, was pronounced dead at around 4:15 p.m after an “officer-involved shooting” occurred, he said.
Three people, including an officer, were shot and sustained minor injuries, according to Eddy. The officer, who hasn’t been identified, was shot in the ear, while the two civilians were each shot in the leg. The two women were sitting inside a pick-up truck outside the sheriff’s office when they were injured, Eddy said.
The shooting occurred in Wallace, Idaho, a small town of less than 800 people in the Idaho Panhandle. Wallace, the county seat of Shoshone County, is about 30 minutes from the Montana, and near Kellogg, Idaho, where Silver Mountain Resort is located.
Gov. Brad Little asked the community to keep the innocent victims of the shooting in their prayers.
“Idaho is deeply grateful to the many law enforcement officers who responded so quickly to a highly dangerous situation,” he posted on X. “Idaho backs the blue!”
RELATED | Three shot, including officer, before gunman killed by law enforcement in Shoshone County
Has the suspect been identified?
The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office has identified the suspect to several local news outlets as 77-year-old John Drake. And, KXLY, a Spokane-based radio station, reported that Drake was from Mullan, Idaho, which is about 7 miles east of Wallace.
The Idaho Statesman has reached out to the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
What agencies responded?
Numerous law enforcement agencies from throughout the region, and neighboring states, responded to the small northern town. This included the Mineral County (Montana) Sheriff’s Office, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the Kellogg Police Department, the Spokane Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris during the news conference said that for any type of significant event, like the shooting, it felt necessary for him to be there in-person to support the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
“When you have a person that goes into a lobby of a sheriff’s office and starts a shootout — that’s a pretty significant event,” he said.
There was also initial concern that the gunman had access to the county’s jail, which shares the Shoshone County Public Safety Facility with the sheriff’s office. Norris said that concern ramped up their response time, immediately sending out their SWAT personnel. People in custody inside the jail were there during the shooting, Eddy said, and none of them have been moved. He added that the shooting didn’t involve any part of the jail.
Whose handling the investigation?
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and the Coeur d’Alene Police Department are handling any type of criminal investigation. And, Idaho State Police is handling the outside investigation of the police shooting, which will then be sent to a local prosecutor’s office to determine whether the officer(s) who shot and killed the suspect were justified in their actions.
Officials didn’t provide any information about the officer(s) involved in the shooting, including which agency they worked for.