It started with gunfire on a quiet Friday afternoon in downtown Wallace. By the time it was over, one man was dead, three people were injured, and the small community of the Silver Valley was left reeling from a brazen attack that ended in the last place anyone expected: the lobby of their own sheriff's office.
Just after 2:30 p.m., shots rang out, striking the Ace Hardware building on Bank Street. The gunman then did the unthinkable. He turned and walked directly into the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office. What followed was a tense, 90-minute standoff that drew law enforcement from across the region. Agencies from Montana and Washington raced to the scene, joined by officers from Coeur d’Alene, Kellogg, and a host of local departments, plus Idaho State Police, the FBI, and U.S. Marshals.
Inside, the situation was chaotic and dangerous. Sheriff William Eddy, who was sworn in just last month, was on scene and entered the building. The shooter had fired inside the lobby and then barricaded himself in an attorney meeting room. “Dameon Groves with the Kellogg Police Department did an outstanding job of taking control of the scene,” Eddy would later say, praising the officer's leadership. That bravery came at a cost. While inside, Officer Groves was shot in the ear. Despite the injury, he finished his shift after receiving treatment for what was thankfully a minor wound. Two civilians were also shot and injured.
The critical response came from the Kootenai County Joint SWAT Team. They confronted the barricaded suspect, and by 4:15 p.m., the unidentified gunman was pronounced dead. Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris, who came to support Eddy, underscored the gravity of the event. “When you have a person that goes into the lobby of a sheriff’s office and starts a shootout, that’s a pretty significant event,” Norris stated. Initial, frantic reports had suggested the shooter might have accessed the jail itself, which sped up the massive response, though it was later confirmed he had not breached the secure inmate area.
For the new sheriff, the shooting caps an incredibly difficult first month in office, a period already marred by several natural disasters. A visibly emotional Eddy admitted during a Friday night press conference, “It’s been a rough month. It seems like one tragedy after the other.” He also took a moment to criticize the rush to publicly name the shooter, chastising a local blogger who published an unconfirmed name on Facebook as "irresponsible."
The community of Wallace is now left to process the shock of a violent day that spilled from its main street into the heart of its justice center. As multiple agencies continue to untangle the investigation, more details are expected in the coming days. For now, the focus remains on a relieved community and the officers, like Dameon Groves, who ran toward the gunfire.
