Boise man arrested on felony charges after ‘series of dangerous and bizarre events’
It’s not often that a police department news release has a headline like this: “Officers arrest man after a series of dangerous and bizarre events leaves one man hospitalized.” It happened in Boise yesterday, starting in the afternoon at Northview Street and Maple Grove, when a driver apparently intentionally drove up onto a sidewalk in a grey, four-door sedan and hit a pedestrian, a 30-year-old who was hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Then, less than 10 minutes later, police started getting calls from residents of the area saying a man was banging on their doors, with one resident saying he seemed to be trying to break down the door. Another report was that the suspect had run through a yard and broken a fence.
Fifteen minutes later, a report came in that a driver had been approached by a man who threatened him and ordered him out of his car; the driver refused and instead told the suspect he’d turn his dog on him, and the suspect ran away.
Police responded immediately and saw the suspect enter a pickup truck, then drive it through a yard and directly toward the officer’s patrol car. As the officer attempted to block the suspect from driving off, the man rammed the patrol car. A second arriving officer also maneuvered his vehicle to block the pickup, police said, and was also rammed by the pick-up. The suspect was yelling threats of violence toward the officers and claiming he had a gun; the two officers took him into custody and neither was seriously hurt.
“Throughout this series of incidents, citizens were calling in good descriptions of the suspect and what direction he was headed,” said Boise Police Sgt. Justin Kendal. “That cooperation from people in the neighborhood helped officers get into the area to stop this guy, which likely saved other citizens from becoming victims of further crime.”
Christopher M. Conaty, 29, of Boise, was booked into the Ada County Jail on three felony charges, aggravated battery, leaving the scene of an injury crash, and aggravated assault on an officer. Additional charges are possible.
