By Garrett Cabeza
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
WALLACE, Idaho — It was a normal post- Christmas day in Wallace until gunshots rang out.
Some who heard the gunfire didn’t worry at first.
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Perhaps, it was a hunter in the surrounding mountains, a car backfire or fireworks. But reality set in when they saw the flashing lights from dozens of law enforcement vehicles from multiple agencies swarming downtown outside the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office.
“It was so loud that the windows in my apartment in here were shaking,” Mike Lighty said of the gunshots Friday.
Lighty, 67, lives in an apartment next door to the sheriff’s office.
The gunman had entered the sheriff’s office lobby about 2:30 p.m. and started firing before law enforcement eventually shot and killed him 1 hour and 45 minutes later, Shoshone County Sheriff William Eddy told reporters Friday.
Two civilian women and an officer were injured by the shooter, who Eddy identified Saturday as 77-year-old John Drake, of nearby Mullan, Idaho.
Eddy said he didn’t know Drake’s motive, and he’s “not sure we ever will.”
He said Drake shot two women who were sitting in a pickup outside the sheriff’s office, in the legs. He initially said an officer was shot in the ear inside the sheriff’s office but clarified Saturday that the officer, who law enforcement has not identified, got hit in the ear with a glass shard caused by Drake’s gunfire.
Eddy said all three victims’ injuries were minor. Drake had several guns with him at the time of the shooting, he said.
Eddy said Saturday that no one ever expects someone to come into the sheriff’s office and open fire.
“You would think that would be a safe and secure place,” he said.
Lighty said he initially heard about eight gunshots from his upstairs apartment and thought they could have been hunters or target shooters. The next thing he saw was 50 or 60 police cars with flashing lights pour into the streets below. SWAT vehicles were among them. He said officers ran with rifles and body armor.
He said the sheriff’s office locked the doors to his apartment building.
“Basically, we were locked in and we said, ‘Oh boy, what the hell’s going on?’ ” Lighty said.
He watched through his window as a couple officers waved at him to get away from it. Lighty said he wasn’t too concerned about stray bullets coming his way.
He said he heard a few shots periodically before the incident ended. He said he never saw the shooter and only heard the gunfire.
Lighty said someone eventually called him to say the gunman was shot, and he started watching the news on TV.
Lighty has lived in large cities, like Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, before settling in Wallace a decade ago.
“For this little bitty city, it’s a shock because nothing happens here,” he said.
Lighty said the area was blocked off with crime scene tape from his apartment to the Harvest Foods grocery store as investigators worked the scene into Saturday morning.
On Saturday at the sheriff’s office, yellow tape blocked the entrance to the building with tiny shards of glass on the top step. At least seven bullet holes marked by detectives could be seen on the exterior walls and edge of the front door. A tall, thin window was shattered, and cardboard was affixed as a temporary replacement.
Across the street, a glass panel of the Ace Hardware store door was shattered with black tape securing it. The store was open for business Saturday.
Next door, Harvest Foods also resumed operations after closing Friday because of the shooting.
Talen Caraway, assistant manager at Harvest Foods, was working Friday afternoon when the gunfire erupted.
He said they allowed the remaining one or two customers in the store to check out before he locked the door to the store, leaving himself, a couple employees and two pharmacists from Kohal Pharmacy, located inside the store, in the building.
About one hour after the first shots were fired, Caraway said two officers knocked on the store’s door and told them to evacuate.
“They were very, very professional and cordial,” he said of the officers.
After everyone left, Caraway said he locked the door and drove away on Interstate 90 to meet with family.
He said the incident was “scary, to say the least.” He said he’s lived in big cities, but never witnessed anything like that.
“I feel like I’m still trying to process it,” he said.
Caraway said he wasn’t sure at first whether the shots were gunshots, a car backfire or fireworks. He realized something was off once he saw the huge police response.
He said he kept employees away from the store window but could still see law enforcement vehicles flying by. He said he did not believe the store was struck by gunfire.
Danny Lunsford , who works for the beverage distributor Odom Corp., was in the back of the store delivering beer when he heard what sounded like three shots. He also didn’t think they were gunshots at first, so he kept working.
He eventually noticed the store was being locked and police were everywhere outside.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m going home,’” said Lunsford, who was back at Harvest Foods on Saturday. “So, I got the hell out of here. It’s like, I’m not sticking around.”
He hopped on I-90 where he continued to see police driving down the freeway to Wallace. He drove to his Osburn home and turned on his police scanner to listen to what was happening.
Lunsford called the ordeal the “craziest thing” he ever saw.
“I’ve been here all my life, and it was nuts,” he said. “There were cops everywhere.”
Eddy told reporters that Idaho State Police is investigating the officer-involved shooting and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and Coeur d’Alene Police Department are handing the “criminal” side of the shooting.
Law enforcement have not identified the officer(s) who fired their guns and for which agency they work.
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, Coeur d’Alene police and Idaho State Police could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris called the shooting Friday a significant event.
“When you have a person that goes into the lobby of a sheriff’s office and starts a shootout, that’s a pretty significant event,” he said.
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