In brief: Four machetes found at site of standoff

Police seized four machetes from an out-of-business Hillyard skateboard shop while executing a search warrant after the arrest of 39-year-old Glen M. Fisher, who was apprehended after a seven-hour standoff with authorities there Wednesday.

One of the machetes appeared to have drops of blood on the blade, court documents show.

Authorities believed Fisher to be extremely dangerous and possibly unstable, according to the documents.

Fisher called responding officers “demons,” police said.

When a SWAT team entered the shop, they found him lying on the floor, face down, documents said, with a shooting bow “around his neck,” the documents say.

Nicole Hensley

Genocide Watch leader to speak at CdA banquet

A world expert on preventing genocide will be keynote speaker at the 16th annual human rights banquet in Coeur d’Alene next month.

Gregory Stanton, president of the international Genocide Watch, will discuss how local action can prevent atrocities. He will cite examples such as the fall of the Soviet Union, the defeat of dictators Slobodan Miloševic in Yugoslavia and Charles Taylor in Liberia, and the effort locally to shut down the Aryan Nations operation in Kootenai County.

Stanton is the Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. In 1999 he founded Genocide Watch, which works to build an international movement to prevent and stop genocide and other forms of mass murder.

The April 22 banquet is presented by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and the Human Rights Education Institute. It will be held at the Best Western Coeur d’Alene Inn.

Banquet tickets are $40 each. Information: (208) 765-3932 or (208) 292-2359.

Scott Maben