Man wielding knife in downtown Boise chases group, uses racial slurs, police say
Boise police arrested a man in downtown Boise after he threatened people with a knife and called them racial slurs early Sunday morning, according to Boise police.
Officers responded to a report of a man chasing a group of people “while displaying a knife” at 2 a.m. near the Idaho Capitol, around North Sixth and West Bannock streets, Boise police said in a Monday news release.
Police arrested Shawn Schmidt, 35, of Boise, after arriving at the scene.
Police said Schmidt inflicted “superficial wounds on himself” with the knife before police arrived, according to the release.
Officers took him to a local hospital, where he was medically cleared, before booking him into the Ada County Jail, police said. His seven felony charges include four counts of aggravated assault and three counts of malicious harassment.
Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said threats or assaults “will not be tolerated, especially when those alleged crimes are motivated by hatred due to someone’s race or ethnicity.”
“Being safe, and feeling safe, while out in Boise is something our officers work hard to protect,” Winegar said in the release. “Boise, as a community, is better than that, and together we stand against hatred and violence.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2023 at 10:16 AM.
