Fatal shooting in Bonner County reported as self-defense

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office said the fatal shooting of a 39-year-old man on Friday afternoon appears to have been an act of self-defense.

In a news release Monday, the sheriff’s office said deputies, along with an officer from the Priest River Police Department, responded at about 5:15 p.m. Friday to investigate a reported disturbance in the 100 block of Rebel Ridge Road.

While the deputies were en route, a dispatcher reported that a 41-year-old woman had shot a male attacker with a handgun while defending herself and her 70-year-old mother, the sheriff’s office said.

Bystanders, and later deputies and emergency medical personnel, were unsuccessful in their efforts to revive the man, who was identified as Joshua Matthew Cole of Spirit Lake.

The incident remained under investigation Monday and no charging decision had been made, but the sheriff’s office said evidence and witness statements supported a claim of self-defense. It did not release the name of either woman involved.