CdA gas station shooting stemmed from Facebook Marketplace dispute

Two teenagers were arrested and another man was shot twice in the upper torso after a Facebook Marketplace sale Friday at a Coeur d’Alene gas station went wrong.

Fausto Labonte-Lovato, 18, tried to steal $60 worth of jewelry from 19-year-old Nathaniel Mendenhall, who then fired multiple shots at a vehicle Labonte-Lovato entered, according to court documents. Labonte-Lovato’s friend and driver of the car, Aleksel Salgado-Manjarrez, was struck twice by the gunfire and taken to Kootenai Health.

He was listed in stable condition at the hospital, according to a Coeur d’Alene Police Department news release Monday.

Labonte-Lovato, of Spokane, was booked into the Kootenai County Jail on suspicion of grand theft, and Mendenhall, of Coeur d’Alene, was booked on suspicion of aggravated assault and aggravated battery.

Officers responded to the shooting call about 3 p.m. at the 76 gas station on Appleway Avenue and Northwest Boulevard, according to documents.

Mendenhall told police he posted a white gold bracelet and Seattle Mariners pendant for sale for $60 on Facebook Marketplace. The two defendants agreed to meet that afternoon at the gas station.

Mendenhall said Labonte-Lovato came up to the window of Mendenhall’s white Subaru and Mendenhall, who was in the driver’s seat, put the bracelet on Labonte-Lovato to show him how it fit, he told police.

Mendenhall then showed the pendant, which was in a plastic baggie, to Labonte-Lovato when he allegedly grabbed the pendant from Mendenhall and took off running. Mendenhall chased Labonte-Lovato, who got into the passenger seat of a car that started to leave, the shooter told police.

Mendenhall said he yelled for the car to stop and to give him his items before he fired a Glock handgun through the back window about four to five times, documents say. The car came to a stop, and Labonte-Lovato got out of the car and gave the items to Mendenhall after he demanded them back.

Mendenhall told police he heard the driver say he was shot. He yelled at bystanders to call 911 and called the emergency line himself.

Labonte-Lovato told police he walked up to the seller’s car and said the seller was acting weird and put a black handgun on his lap, which scared Labonte-Lovato. He said he was holding the pendant and ran. That’s when Mendenhall started to shoot and demanded the pendant back, which Labonte-Lovato did, the alleged thief told police.

According to police, he told 911 dispatch that, “(Mendenhall) was selling a fake chain so I dipped out on him,” court records show.

Salgado-Manjarrez told police at the hospital he drove Labonte-Lovato to the gas station so the defendant could buy a pendant off a Facebook Marketplace ad. He said he believed Labonte-Lovato tried to rob or steal from the seller before the seller fired shots at his car, striking him.

One witness told police Salgado-Manjarrez said he was shot, and the occupants of the car claimed they robbed Mendenhall for a chain and “it was not worth it,” documents say.

Surveillance footage captured the two vehicles arriving at the gas station around 3 p.m., Labonte-Lovato walking to Mendenhall’s car and the alleged thief running from Mendenhall’s car and getting into the car his friend was driving. Mendenhall ran toward their vehicle and fired shots at it.

Neither defendant was listed in jail Tuesday night after posting bond, according to the Idaho Court Portal.

They both appeared for video arraignments Monday in Kootenai County Magistrate Court and are scheduled for preliminary hearings later this month.

Anyone who was at the gas station when the shooting occurred and has information to share is encouraged to contact Coeur d’Alene police.