Elementary School Girls Say They Were Shot At

A group of elementary school girls reported being shot at from a vehicle Tuesday near Hayden, less than a mile from where a Hayden woman said a driver pointed a pistol at her while stopped at an intersection.

The three 10-year-old girls were walking along James Street about 8:30 p.m. when they were approached by a white station wagon that was slightly jacked up, loaded with camping gear and carrying four people.

According to police reports, as the car neared, a male about 18 years old leaned his upper body out of the passenger side window, yelled “Yahoo,” and fired a single round from a silver semiautomatic handgun. The car then sped away as the girls ran into the nearby bushes.

At 9:15 p.m. a Hayden woman and her daughter reported a male passenger in a blue Ford Taurus stopped next to them at the intersection of Hayden Avenue and Lakeview and pointed a large stainless steel pistol at them as they sat in their car.

No suspects were located in either incident, which authorities believe were isolated events.

“I think it is probably pre-Fourth of July rowdiness,” Kootenai County sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “But it was really unusual to have two reported the same day.”