Police ask for witnesses in downtown Boise shooting. They’ve made an arrest
Police said they employed a flash-bang device during the arrest of a suspect Thursday after a shooting took place in Boise early Wednesday morning.
In a news release, the Boise Police Department said officers responded to the area of W. Grove Street and 15th Street shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday after hearing shots fired. Officers found an adult victim who they believe was involved in a dispute with the suspect. The victim was transported to a local hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to the release.
Detectives with the department’s Violent Crimes Unit investigated and identified Ryan Norton-Putnam, 30, of Boise, as the suspect. Officers located Norton-Putnam on Thursday in an alley near the 500 block of W. Main Street, and because they believed the man may have been armed, they used a “noise and flash distraction device” in the arrest, the release said.
Those flash-bang devices work by producing “a loud noise and a bright flash to distract someone in an attempt to delay their reaction time by a brief moment,” BPD spokesperson Haley Kramer previously told the Idaho Statesman.
Norton-Putnam was arrested on suspicion of felony aggravated assault and booked into the Ada County Jail, where he remained Thursday night.
Police say the investigation is ongoing. They are asking witnesses who were seen on surveillance video, and who appeared to have recorded the incident — as well as anyone else with information — to contact Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 7:33 PM.
