In brief: Sandpoint police shoot and kill knife-wielding woman at hospital

Sandpoint police officers shot and killed a knife-wielding woman near the city’s hospital Tuesday night.

The woman, 35, has not been named by investigators. She was treated by emergency medical workers but did not survive.

The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office is coordinating a multiagency investigation into the shooting.

The woman was armed with a knife, refused commands to drop the weapon and “aggressed the officers,” Detective Sgt. Gary Johnston of the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

“The officers responded to the threat using lethal force,” Johnston said.

The confrontation was around 9:15 p.m. near Bonner General Hospital, which was locked down during the incident.

The names of the officers involved also have not been released.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Johnston at (208) 263-8417, ext. 3058.

Staff report

Officer kills attacking dog with single gunshot in CdA

A Coeur d’Alene police officer shot and killed a pit bull that lunged at him from the window of a van parked near downtown Wednesday morning.

Officers responded around 11 a.m. to reports of a suspicious van, possibly with someone watching young children, parked in a lot behind 821 Sherman Ave.

As an officer approached along the driver’s side, a “vicious pit bull dog lunged out the open driver’s side window toward the officer’s face,” Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Jeff Walther said in a news release.

The officer fired one round from his service weapon as the dog lunged, striking the animal in the chest and killing it, Walther said.

The officer was not injured. The van was unoccupied.

Officers were working to locate the owner early Wednesday afternoon.

Staff report

Power loss in central Spokane prompts lockdown at jail

A portion of central Spokane including the Spokane County Jail and Spokane County Courthouse briefly lost power Wednesday afternoon.

Power was lost from Ash Street to Howard Street, and north of the Spokane River to Carlisle Avenue, affecting 1,605 customers, according to Avista.

The outage occurred at 1:26 p.m. and lasted for about 10 minutes, said Avista spokeswoman Jessie Wuerst.

An equipment problem that occurred during construction caused the power failure.

The Spokane County Jail closed the lobby and locked down the inmates, said Jay Hughes, assistant director for Spokane Detention Services.

The jail used backup generators. “Whenever something like that happens, we go into a lockdown mode,” Hughes said.

Avista was able to reroute power to customers while they were fixing the equipment malfunction, Wuerst said.

Wilson Criscione