‘Not so sleepy this week’: Boise police descend on North End again. Here’s what happened
A swarm of police officers surrounded a home in Boise’s North End on Friday, surprising residents and closing off a block for roughly an hour just two days after a rifle-firing suspect was killed in a police shootout in a nearby section of the community.
“Our sleepy little neighborhood’s not so sleepy this week,” said Heather Jacobs, a server at the 13th Street Pub and Grill, in an interview with the Idaho Statesman.
Police started arriving at the intersection of N. 12th and W. Eastman streets at around 11 a.m., residents and employees of nearby businesses said. It was one police car at first, and then more trickled in. By noon, there were at least eight patrol cars in the area, including K9 units, witnesses said.
Officers surrounded 1515 N. 12th St., blocking off the road and the alley behind the home, said Ron Woitko, who lives next door to that address. They used a megaphone to try to communicate with someone they believed to be inside, and told that person to come out with their hands in the air, said Daren Fluke, who watched from his home office across the street.
The orders via the megaphone continued periodically for about an hour, he said.
Then they dispersed. All of the police left.
“They just backed off,” Jacobs said, noting that police told employees of the pub they were still watching the house.
Haley Williams, spokesperson for the Boise Police Department, said officers responded to the area to speak to a subject about an ongoing investigation. “Officers were unable to make contact with the subject and will follow up at a later time,” she said in a message to the Statesman.
Williams later said that initial information indicated concern for someone’s safety, as well as officer safety, and that prompted the level of response.
“Through further investigation, officers were able to gather details that there wasn’t an immediate threat,” she said.
There is no active warrant out related to the investigation, Williams said, and no information suggesting any threat to the public.
Woitko told the Statesman that he and his wife, Kathy, returned home at 11:45 a.m. and weren’t allowed into their house. An officer told him they’d be there for a while, he said.
“So we just decided to go to the pub,” Kathy Woitko said. “We had no place else to go.”
Ron Woitko said a man and his wife have rented the house that police surrounded for two years, and have a son, a daughter and three dogs. He said he’s interacted with them and had no issues.
“North End’s getting to be wild again,” Ron Woitko said.
This story was originally published July 28, 2023 at 5:40 PM.
