Young man’s flight into river causes concern

A young North Idaho man who slapped a deputy and then dove into the Spokane River to get away early Wednesday morning has not been seen since. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department, after searching the area with divers for several hours, is hoping to hear from Joseph Allan Peterson, 20, of Hauser Lake.

“We want to get the word out to his friends: ‘Look, it’s a misdemeanor warrant, for crying out loud.’ We just want to know if he’s alive,” Capt. Ben Wolfinger, information officer for the Sheriff’s Department, said.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, Dep. Gary Dagestine was called to an area of West Foothill Drive in Post Falls, on the north bank of the river, at about 5 a.m. Wednesday on a report of a suspicious vehicle parked near the river.

Dagestine found two young people having sex in the car, allowed them to get dressed and asked for identification. A check on Peterson’s name showed the young man is wanted for failing to appear in court on a misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge.

Dagestine asked Peterson to step out of the car and told him about the warrant, Wolfinger said. Peterson initially stood with his hands atop the car, but then spun suddenly, slapped Dagestine in the side of the head, Wolfinger said, “and took off running like a rabbit,” for the river.

That was the last anybody at the Sheriff’s Department has seen of Peterson. Authorities are concerned for Peterson’s safety, saying the drawdown of Lake Coeur d’Alene has created a strong current in the Spokane River upstream of the Post Falls Dam.

Hugh Imhof, a spokesman for Avista, the utility that operates the dam, said they had not been contacted by authorities “but there isn’t a lot we can do.”

The floodgates are closed, Imhof said, with the drawdown routed through the dam’s power-generating turbines. The turbine intakes are protected by grates in the middle channel of the river, he said.

Dam staffers check the grates regularly and have not found a body.

The river, Imhof said, was running at 3,100 cubic feet per second Wednesday.