Man shot by deputy spent evening in bar

A Rathdrum, Idaho, man spent most of the evening in a bar before an incident at an ex-girlfriend’s house led to his death Friday.

A Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Frank Saucedo, Jr., 33, early Friday morning after the incident at the home of former girlfriend Kara Jones, of Rathdrum. The shooting is under investigation by the Idaho State Police.

Darci Cook, a bartender at the Shady Rest Bar in Rathdrum, was one of the last to see Saucedo Thursday night.

Cook said Saucedo was in the bar when she arrived for work at 6 p.m. and he had a small pitcher of beer to himself. He had only been in the bar a few times before, she said, and was usually with Jones.

Cook found it odd that he was alone, but didn’t think much of it at the time, she said. She added he didn’t act drunk or appear to be on drugs.

“I wasn’t too worried about him,” said Cook. “He was real mellow and was playing pool with a couple of the regulars. That kid seemed real patient.”

She said Saucedo left at about 10 p.m. and asked her to put a second pitcher he’d ordered in a cooler. He returned about 12:15 a.m.

Then she noticed Saucedo kept dropping a knife from his pocket and she told him to put it away or leave. She said he wasn’t flashing it around, but told him to leave at 12:30 a.m. after he picked it up and began shaving his arm hairs with it, she said.

Saucedo asked Cook to call him a cab, but he left the bar before securing a ride.

According to witnesses and police, Saucedo showed up at Kara Jones’ residence wielding a knife and demanding entry. Two Rathdrum police officers arrived at about 1 a.m. and backed off at the sight of the knife until two sheriff’s deputies arrived. He charged the four officers, who then fired nonlethal beanbag rounds before sheriff’s deputies resorted to lethal force, said Capt. Clark Rollins of the Idaho State Police.

Rollins said police and witness reports have been consistent and vehicle surveillance taped the incident. Preliminary findings of the autopsy confirm gunshots to the chest and left upper extremity. Full autopsy information should be available in the next three to six weeks.

Rollins said he has “reason to believe” drugs were involved in the incident and he is now waiting for autopsy, ballistic and toxicology reports. The ISP is withholding names of officers involved in the shooting until the investigation is complete.

According to court records, Saucedo had a criminal history in Arizona, California, Idaho and Oregon. In addition to several suspended license violations, court records show he was convicted of battery in Sacramento, Calif., and was arrested for obstruction and disturbing the peace in Los Angeles. He also was arrested for passing bad checks in Tucson, Ariz., and had a commercial driver’s license suspended in Salem, Ore., last June.

In September, Saucedo was pulled over in Idaho for driving 78 mph eastbound on Interstate 90 five miles from the Montana border. He told police he had six beers and was booked on a DUI charge after he failed several sobriety tests, in addition to recording a blood alcohol content of .236/.238. The legal limit in Idaho is .08. He pleaded not guilty and spent 68 days in jail before he was found guilty and had his license suspended in November for a year. He received a fine of $300, which remains unpaid.

Saucedo also had seven suspended licenses out of Arizona for failure to appear, two out of Oregon for failure to comply and a warrant for failure to appear, according to court records.

The September DUI was his fourth within the last five years, one of which he had a blood-alcohol content of .235.