Marshals get their man
Tom Hasslinger | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 8 months AGO
<p>Ben Childs, 36, is searched following a manhunt for him on Tubbs Hill that started after a U.S. Marshall tried to serve an arrest warrant Thursday morning near the Coeur d'Alene Public Library. Childs, wanted for federal felony probation violation, was found hiding under a canoe on the side of a residence on the 700-block of Young Avenue.</p>
<p>Coeur d'Alene Police Officer Shane Avirett walks toward his vehicle discussing search operations for a fugitive on Tubbs Hill with representatives from the FBI, U.S. Marshall's Office and Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.</p>
<p>Kootenai County Sheriff Deputy Jason Shaw arrives on scene of a manhunt with his K-9 partner at the northeast side of Tubbs Hill.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - A 36-year-old man who couldn't be brought down by a Taser was arrested Thursday after officers found him hiding under a canoe following an hourlong manhunt that closed Tubbs Hill.
Ben Childs was arrested by United States Marshals shortly before noon for felony probation violation stemming from a federal weapons offense.
He was hiding under a canoe in the yard of a home on the 700 block of Young Avenue, when marshals and a Kootenai County Sheriff's K-9 located him with the help of neighbors who had spotted the suspect trying to hide and called 911.
"He tried to get in but the door was locked," said Clint, a neighbor on Young Avenue, who didn't want to give his last name but called police after the suspect allegedly tried to enter his home. "All I seen then was the dude took off around the hill."
Around an hour before, marshals had spotted Childs on the corner of Eighth Street and Front Avenue, near the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, and tried to apprehend him, according to officers. Young fled south down Eighth Street and turned to Tubbs Hill near Young Avenue.
Before the pursuit, marshals had hit Childs with a Taser, according to Coeur d'Alene Police Cpt. Steve Childers.
"Yes, he was Tased," said Childers. "But it didn't, obviously, work."
Police and sheriff's deputies helped in the manhunt, sealing off entrance points to the popular downtown hiking hill. People were also evacuated from adjacent McEuen Field. A helicopter from Spokane was called to help search, but by the time it arrived officers were zeroing in on Childs under the canoe.
"'Let me in, let me in,'" Clint said Childs yelled through the locked door after he reportedly tried to enter the apartment.
Clint, who had young children in the apartment at the time, said he watched from his front window as Childs then took off toward the hill but returned to the yard to take his hiding spot. Another person in Clint's apartment could be seen from another window waving at officers, and pointing downward toward the yard.
Childs was taken into custody without incident.
"It was pretty intense," Clint said. "(The arresting officers) pulled him out hard."
It was unclear whether marshals had showed up to issue the Coeur d'Alene arrest warrant on Childs or whether they had spotted him coincidentally as the fugitive was getting out of a vehicle Thursday morning. He had been on probation for felon in possession of a weapon, according to police.