Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part one, with part two set to appear in Sunday’s Tribune.
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MEADOWS, Idaho — Randy Martinez was at a friend’s house unloading rocks from his pickup truck on the afternoon of March 29 when a barrage of gunfire erupted across Idaho Highway 55 east of New Meadows.
Acting on instinct and training, Martinez, an Idaho Fish and Game conservation officer, grabbed his pistol and ran toward the gunshots.
His actions are credited with allowing two Adams County Sheriff’s Office deputies to escape from behind their patrol cars, one of which was riddled with bullets from a semi-automatic rifle.
The gunman escaped, but Bill James, 24, of Cambridge, was captured five days later at the scene of the shooting. He has been charged with attempted murder.
Martinez, 48, a 17-year employee of Fish and Game, was off-duty March 29 when the gunman began firing at deputies Nikki Sauerland and Randall Benavides.
“I turned as soon as I heard the first shots and I could see the deputies running for cover behind their vehicles and debris flying off of their cars,” Martinez said.
“I just grabbed my pistol and ran over there as fast as I could,” he said.
The deputies were attempting to arrest James at Quality Feed in Meadows for violating a protective order.
After grabbing his handgun, Martinez took cover in the ditch on the north side of Highway 55 as he scanned for the source of the gunfire and hollered at the deputies.
That is when he realized just how pinned down the deputies were as each ducked behind the wheels on their patrol cars.
“I saw bullets hitting the dirt near Officer Sauerland,” he said. “I was pretty worried she was going to get hit for sure, cause it seemed like most of the gunfire was coming in her direction.”
After spotting the gunman to the west in the shadows of a barn taking cover behind hay bales, Martinez shifted to also use the ACSO patrol cars as cover from across the highway.
But then he began noticing bullets ricocheting at strange trajectories that suggested the gunman was on the move.
“I remember going through my head like, ‘something ain’t right,’ ” he said. Martinez shimmied out from cover to get a look at the gunman and noticed he was no longer in the barn.
“That’s when I saw him, gun shouldered in a crouch coming straight at us,” he said.
“I knew at that point, there was a good chance the deputies were gonna get struck or killed or injured, so that’s when I fired at him just to try to beat him to the trigger, I guess, and turn him away to stop that threat,” Martinez said.
Martinez fired several shots from his .40-caliber Glock 23 pistol toward the gunman from about 100 yards. The gunman immediately ran away, hopping a fence and disappearing behind the barn.
Martinez ran west down Highway 55 to continue pursuing the gunman. “I didn’t want to let him get out of my sight,” he said.
But outbuildings, barns and other obstacles dotting the property gave the suspect the cover he needed to escape.
Martinez knew the gunman was armed and capable of hurting other law enforcement or bystanders.
“I didn’t know what was gonna be next,” he said. “I was definitely nervous.”
Martinez alerted a Valley County Sheriff’s Office deputy responding from the west of the gunman’s last known location, after which the two of them evacuated a house near where the gunfight began.
Martinez believes the gunfight lasted just a few minutes, but admits he had little concept of time as everything unfolded.
“Time just kind of passed at a different pace for me there,” he said.
Despite being off-duty, Martinez said his response was natural and that any other trained law enforcement officer would have done the same.
“You’re really never out of that mind frame,” he said. “It’s hard to shut if off once you’re a law enforcement officer to not be one all the time.”
The incident was the first time Martinez has fired his gun despite having frequently drawn it over the years.
“I have had some tense moments in the middle of nowhere basically, at all hours of the day and night, usually by myself,” he said.
— Drew Dodson, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
Kamiah council talks COVID-19, policy for staff wage increases
KAMIAH — It was business as usual at the Kamiah City Council meeting last week, except for one detail — the entire council and city attorney connected to the meeting via telephone.
In an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19, only the Kamiah mayor, city clerk and a videographer were allowed in City Hall. Mayor Betty Heater conducted the meeting via teleconference.
Attorney Dan Chadwick said the stay-at-home order is recommended to be continued until the end of April.
He noted that Clearwater Valley Hospital reported its first COVID-19 case, but that no cases were listed in Lewis County even though one may have started there.
He felt the city was doing right by limiting the number of people attending city council meetings, “for the protection of the mayor and Stephanie and for the protection of the public.”
He said there was no reason to provide normal access to city hall.
“There was a problem at city park with people congregating and not following the no-more-than-10-people rule,” said Chadwick, explaining why city parks have been closed.
“You all are doing really well following those orders,” encouraged Chadwick. He felt Idaho was doing it right regarding elections being held by absentee ballot instead of in person.
He urged the continuation of physical distancing, not social distancing. “It’s physical distancing that prevents the spread. Wear your gloves, wear your masks, wash your hands and sanitize when you can.”
Councilor Dan Millward asked who the people were at city park. Heater said she could not give names but said there was a lot of volleyball activity.
— Ben Jorgensen, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday
