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December 28, 2009 in Idaho
Downtown CdA shooting concerns business owners
Shoppers walk around Coeur d’Alene’s downtown, decorated for the holidays to lure shoppers. Some have been wondering what happens after hours to set off some recent violent events there, including the shooting of two people early Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009.
(Full-size photo)
Young people partying and drinking in downtown Coeur d’Alene is nothing new; it’s been going on for years.
However, one thing that might have changed, several downtown business owners said Monday, is seeing young people bring guns along for the night. An early Sunday shooting outside a downtown bar left two young men hospitalized, one fighting for his life. In May, a young man was shot and killed outside a downtown bar after arguing with another patron.
Some business owners were surprised to discover they knew the suspected shooter in Sunday’s incident. Adam Johnson, 25, owns a telecommunications company and belongs to the same civic organizations they do.
“How sad is that? Here is a young businessman … walking around with a gun at 1 o’clock in the morning. How would anyone predict that?” said Jim Elder, owner of Cricket’s bar and grill on Sherman Avenue. “The changing morals of our young people have introduced people carrying guns and things like that.”
Mayor Sandi Bloem, also a downtown business and property owner, said city leaders will look at the tragedy once they know all the facts and determine whether anything additional can or should be done to prevent incidents like this.
“I feel strongly that alcohol and firearms don’t mix,” she said. However, she added, “I think it’s important to remember we have thousands and thousands of people using the downtown throughout the year and they are safe. They enjoy the downtown and, for the most part, they get home safely.”
Bloem said she doesn’t want to underplay the tragedy but also doesn’t want to jump to conclusions until the facts are clear.
The young people going out drinking in downtown bars aren’t much different than they’ve ever been. There are just more of them, said Tom Robb, 38-year owner of the Iron Horse bar and restaurant on Sherman Avenue. When the Iron Horse opened, he said, Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County had half the population they have today.
“A lot of it is being careful with the screening of your customers and things like that,” Robb said. “One thing I’ve noticed generally out among the public is there’s a lot of anger out there for a lot of reasons, none of which pertains to the Coeur d’Alene downtown area. A lot of people are unemployed. There’s more anger out there.”
Elder said over the past decade, Cricket’s has moved away from trying to attract the party-going younger crowd. Too many Monday mornings, he said, he entered his business to find holes in the walls or sliced-up vinyl in the booths. It was a hard decision, he said, because the younger crowd spends a lot of money.
“I finally said enough,” Elder said. “It isn’t that we turn them away. Young people come in, but they come in with a different attitude. When they’re looking for sanity, they order something to eat and they have a drink, and they’re great. When you create that atmosphere of activity with the hard rock and the music of today, it does create an intensity.”
He commended the Coeur d’Alene Police Department for “controlling the chaos of downtown” over the summer with stepped-up patrols. Elder said some people expressed frustration about increased police presence, but he was glad to see it.
“They really contained the downtown,” he said. “We didn’t have any major incidents.”
Two Fernwood residents dead after Monday accident 
SugarShane on December 29 at 11:33 a.m.
If you have ever been out to the bars you will know that they ALL continually break the law and bring this stuff on themselves in the name of profit. If you didn’t know, law prohibits selling alcohol to an intoxicated person. I have never seen anyone but someone that is literally falling down drunk be refused another drink. Use all that money your raking in and add some security to your places, or install metal detectors. It is also illegal to carry a firearm into a bar. Use legislation to change the laws, thats what they always tell me about cannabis, and change the cut off time for drinking to 11pm. Young people dont need to be out all night drinking anyways. I hope you red staters are happy with your staunch support of cannabis being illegal. Your precious alcohol has killed countless thousands, and will kill countless thousands more. Cannabis, being in use by mankind for about 5000 years has never killed a single person. There is no justification for it being illegal, 14 states have medical marijuana laws making the federal Schedule 1 listing invalid. Give people a choice in their drug of choice and deaths, domestic violence, and even crime will drop.
shanusmaximus on December 29 at 6:04 p.m.
@SugarShanes
“It is also illegal to carry a firearm into a bar.”
Actually, in Idaho you can. Not that it really matters in this situation since the incident happened in the street.
“I hope you red staters are happy with your staunch support of cannabis being illegal.”
What does weed have anything to do with this situation? Or do you just enjoy throwing that topic into every matter? Anyway….I bet some weed was smoked that evening…..
“Give people a choice in their drug of choice and deaths, domestic violence, and even crime will drop.”
Would you be able to show me something that would make me believe that??
popeye2801 on December 30 at 3:08 a.m.
From the spokesman review: “Adam felt like that guy was giving him an ultimatum by coming towards him, that he needed to pull the trigger,” according to a police report. “Adam said he yelled stop twice and then ‘squeezed.’”
From the CDL Press: “He thought he was going to be killed,” Saunders said. “He was begging them to stop.”
Because he was badly beaten in the course of events just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Johnson was hard to understand on the phone, she said, but he did contend the wounded men and others began beating him before they were shot.
… See More
So, who’s the liar here? The spokesman review, CDL press, the police report, or Saunders. It is amazing how screwed the stories are on this case.
I know he was on the ground just by the wounds the other guys got, and if the police aren’t total idiots they can find out by the angle of the bullet travel through the body. They should have arrested all of them and got stories before they could collaborate.
It’s pretty damn obvious what happened. His parents need to start a legal fund so he isn’t screwed by a public defender.
Everybody seems to be worried about Adam’s DUI. Maybe they should check out the wounded guy’s criminal records.
4 Burgess, Brandon Jeffrey
Defendant Skamania District CR0009118 04-04-2002
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Minor Thurston Superior 06-3-01129-6 10-13-2006
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Defendant Sno Co-cascade Div 155378 06-02-1992
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Iniquity on December 30 at 6:10 a.m.
whoa those two guys where already criminals… HOLY CRAP
haveastogie on December 30 at 7:37 a.m.
THEY BOTH NEED TO BE ARRESTED FOR GANG ACTIVITY UPON A PERSON.
ADAM - DEFENDED HIMSELF. PERIOD.
shanusmaximus on December 30 at 9:46 a.m.
@haveastogies
How do you come to the conclusion of “gang activity”? Are we to slap this on any group of friends who get into a scuffle??
arroyoribera on December 30 at 7:06 p.m.
Couer d’Alene, Idaho. Let the freeman roam. Don’t hem ‘em in, Mr. Government man, because they be packin’. Let him watch the bald eagle, symbol of America, free and proud, flying over the lake. A bigger flag, flying higher. Elect Republicans to protect our rights, damn it. Tough guys (and sometimes racists). But Americans one an all. You know, right to keep and bear and tout and use if necessary. Tough guys, you know. NRA, Siempre Fi. They only work in Washington but wouldn’t live over there with those socailists who pay the highest minimum wage in the country. Tough guys, you know.
So get this quote from the article:
“How sad is that? Here is a young businessman … walking around with a gun at 1 o’clock in the morning. How would anyone predict that?” said Jim Elder, owner of Cricket’s bar and grill on Sherman Avenue. “The changing morals of our young people have introduced people carrying guns and things like that.”.
Say what, Mr. Elder.
What happened to: NRA baby! Carry it, use it. Make my day, tough guy.
What a country. You got a love ‘em.
In Iraq and Afghanistan its invade ‘em, kick there doors down and kill their mothers, children and old people, but then whine when they kill your invading and occupying boys.
And in Couer d’Alene Idaho? Where real mean live?
Blame it on the morals of the young people.
What a country!
arroyoribera on December 30 at 7:07 p.m.
Sorry, forgot to sign that last post.
David Brookbank
arroyoribera on January 01 at 5:47 p.m.
A little bit more concretely, this is how the NRA toots the horn of armed citizenry. http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=5268
This young “businessman” was just doing what a certain faction of the U.S. would have him do, carry a weapon for his own self-defense.
Unfortunately he was doing so while using the countries drug of choice, alcohol. And you can be assured that this is not an infrequent reality.
Live by the gun, die (or go to prison) by the gun.