Driver faces murder charge

A 41-year-old Athol, Idaho, woman was run over and killed Sunday in an apparent case of road rage.

The alleged driver, Jonathan Wade Ellington, 45, of Hayden, was booked into Kootenai County Jail on charges of murder, aggravated driving while intoxicated, leaving the scene of a fatality, and an outstanding warrant for violating probation for a previous DUI, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Deputies responded to an area in northern Kootenai County, near Ramsey and Brunner roads, after receiving a call from two sisters just before noon.

The young women told deputies that another driver had been harassing them – tailgating their vehicle, passing recklessly, and threatening to beat them up when the cars were stopped. The sisters called 911 after the suspect left, deputies said. It was unclear Sunday night whether the suspect knew the young women.

A deputy arrived and searched the area for the suspect while the women were writing witness statements, deputies said. The pair also called their parents, who drove out to join them.

The alleged victims and their parents spotted the suspect’s vehicle on Ramsey Road while they waited for the deputy to return. All of them chased the suspect, who was heading southbound onto Scarcello Road, deputies said. The suspect ran off the road about a half-mile east of State Highway 41.

The alleged victims’ father tried to block Ellington’s vehicle, but he got his older model GMC Jimmy back on the road, clipping the father’s vehicle and ramming the sisters’ car. Deputies said Ellington then ran over the mother, who had left the vehicle with her husband.

After that, Ellington fled. The woman suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her name was not released Sunday, pending notification of other family members.

State troopers found the suspect’s vehicle at a house a short distance from the crime scene, police said. Ellington, the vehicle’s owner, admitted to being the driver, officials said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said the incident is a tragic reminder to civilians not to intervene at crime scenes.

“Don’t get caught up in the reaction,” he said. “Contact the police and let us deal with it.”