<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (July 17, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I-90 gunman had two rifles</h1><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A North Idaho sheriff says a gunman who opened fire on police last month and was shot in return is probably alive thanks to the quick aid provided by officers on the scene.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Officers involved on that Sunday night showed great resolve and are a testament to their professionalism,” Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler said Wednesday. “An example of that professionalism was when officers immediately provided life-saving measures to the suspect who minutes earlier was trying to kill them.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wheeler, whose office is leading the investigation of the June 22 shootout in Post Falls, revealed more details about the confrontation with Marcus Rael, who’s from Glendale, Arizona.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 24-year-old was armed with an FN 5.7 carbine rifle with a 50-round magazine and an AK-47 with a high-capacity drum magazine, and evidence shows Rael fired both weapons, Wheeler said. The FN 5.7 is known as a “cop killer” with rounds designed to penetrate bulletproof vests, the sheriff added.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Police began pursuing Rael in the early morning hours when he fled an officer’s attempt to pull him over in Coeur d’Alene on suspicion of driving under the influence, Wheeler said. Police pursued him west on Interstate 90, and Rael took the Spokane Street exit just before encountering a spike strip placed in his path on the freeway, the sheriff said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Rael began shooting at officers while pulling off the interstate,” he said. “After the truck he was driving came to a stop, Rael continued to fire at officers.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rael fortified himself between his 2004 Nissan Titan work truck, which had several steel toolboxes in the back, and a Jersey barrier on the interstate off-ramp, Wheeler said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Confronting him there, officers attempted to get Rael to surrender, but he continued to fire on them, the sheriff said. The 12 officers who returned fire are with the Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene police departments, the Idaho State Police and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“They showed great courage that night and restraint, trying to de-escalate that scene,” Wheeler said. “If no one has ever been in a firefight or been shot at, you don’t understand how stressful that can be. My hat’s off to those officers that were on scene initially.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He did not reveal how many rounds were fired by police or by Rael, how many times Rael was shot or the nature of his injuries. Some patrol cars were struck by bullets but no officers were injured.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bonner County detectives continue to investigate the shooting, and more details will come out later, the sheriff said. “You have to understand that there are literally hundreds and probably up to 1,000 pieces of evidence that have to be processed,” he said.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wheeler said police also do not know why Rael was in North Idaho. Upon being released from the hospital he was arrested and sent to the Kootenai County Jail on $1 million bond.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Prior to the shooting, Rael called 911 and spoke with a dispatcher, giving authorities information about his identity, Wheeler said. He did not reveal the nature of the conversation.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The officers who fired at Rael were placed on administrative leave and now are beginning to return to work.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An FN 5.7 carbine rifle with a 50-round magazine, left, and an AK-47 with a high-capacity drum magazine were found in Marcus Rael’s possession after the Arizona man was injured during a gunbattle with North Idaho police on Interstate 90 last month.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><img src="cid:0F80E933-224A-4386-A0BE-D3912718F109" alt="cop_gunbattlejmp17_t1240.jpg" id="0F80E933-224A-4386-A0BE-D3912718F109" width="640" height="345"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">------------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>