In brief: Homeowner shoots suspected intruder
A man shot a suspected intruder in Coeur d’Alene on Monday night, and police are searching for two men accused of fleeing the scene.
Police say Jake S. Smith, 18, and Eli C. Skalak, 29, were with Shae A. Crump, 24, at a home in the 1100 block of Margaret Avenue about 11:40 p.m. when the 74-year-old homeowner, awoken by his dog, fired his handgun, striking Crump in the arm.
That came after the man saw Smith and Skalak, who were outside, turn “as if they were going to come back inside of his residence after him,” according to a police news release.
The homeowner called 911. A Kootenai Medical Center official called 911, too, after Crump showed up at the emergency room with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, police said.
Anyone who knows where Smith or Skalak are is asked to call the Coeur d’Alene Police Department at (208) 769-2323.
Meghann M. Cuniff
EWU professor’s memorial planned
A campus memorial service for an Eastern Washington University professor killed in a kayaking accident on the St. Joe River is planned for Tuesday in Cheney.
W. Anthony “Tony” Oertling, 55, will be remembered by students and faculty from 3 to 4 p.m. in the JFK Library Auditorium. Refreshments will be served from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Computing and Engineering Sciences Building.
Oertling, who drowned May 29 on the Idaho river, was serving his first year as chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at EWU.
The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office said he had 20 years of kayaking experience on the St. Joe.
Sara Leaming
Wellesley-Belt intersection open
North Belt Street at West Wellesley Avenue, closed since mid-April for intersection improvements, has been reopened to traffic.
The closure had limited options for North Side drivers who have had trouble getting around the northwest part of the city because of construction projects.
The $410,000 project, funded by federal and city money, included a traffic light improvement and pavement reconstruction. The new intersection was installed this year in advance of pavement reconstruction on Wellesley next year.
Mike Prager