Police arrested a 31-year-old man after four people were found shot to death in a Kellogg home Sunday evening, according to Idaho State Police.
Investigators declined to release the suspect's name until after he makes his initial court appearance but said there's no additional threat to the community. The suspect was the victims' neighbor, police said.
"This is a tragic situation that will affect the Kellogg community," said Lt. Paul Berger of the Idaho State Police. "Detectives continue working to establish a timeline and what led to the shooting."
A caller told Shoshone County dispatch that multiple people had been killed at 515 W. Brown Ave. about 7:20 p.m. Sunday. Officers found four dead inside.
The Kellogg Police Department requested that the state police investigate the homicides, according to a news release.
Monday afternoon, a handful of police cars sat outside the tan duplex where the bodies were found.
Mary Jane McShane, 80, was in her backyard gardening Sunday evening when the shooting took place and said she didn't hear anything. She didn't even realize anything out of the ordinary had occurred across the street until her brother called to ask if she was OK.
"It's normally very calm, very quiet," said McShane, a retired nurse. "It's shocking and sad."
Kellogg is a small, close-knit town, McShane said.
"I never expected something like this to happen," she said.
McShane, who spends part of the year abroad, said she always has been apprehensive about the gun culture in North Idaho, but now fears her Irish friends won't want to come visit because of the prevalence of shootings.
Five people were shot Saturday night at a campground near the Gorge Amphitheatre near George, Washington, and several mass shootings were reported across the country over the holiday weekend.
Dawn Rauenhorst had just said goodbye to her daughter when she saw police lights across the street from her house. She thought maybe someone had a car accident or there was a medical call at the nearby assisted living facility.
"I didn't imagine it would ever be anything this serious," Rauenhorst said.
Then her daughter called asking if she was safe. That's when Rauenhorst learned there had been a shooting up the block from her home.
"It was a total shock," she said.
The neighborhood is mainly retirees, Rauenhorst said. People are friendly and helpful, mowing each others' yards and picking up mail when they go out of town.
Paul Roberts was having dinner at his sister-in-law's house Sunday night across the street from Kellogg's Mountain View Congregational Church, where he's an associate pastor, when they heard about the shooting. It happened directly behind the church.
Roberts opened the church for police as they investigated the shooting.
As a retired high school English teacher, Roberts knows most people in town.
"I like to say that people are there for each other," he said of the community.
He hopes the town waits until investigators release more information before spreading rumors about what happened and the people involved.
"We need to take our time and get the full story," Roberts said. "It's tragic for both sides of this whole thing."
By 3 p.m. Monday, police had withdrawn from the neighborhood, returning the duplex where the shooting took place to its typical state as a storm blew through bringing rain to the region.
Family members of the people who live on the upper floor of the building returned at about 3:30 p.m. and began loading suitcases into their vehicles. They declined to speak with The Spokesman-Review.
Idaho State Patrol spokesperson Aaron Snell said it's a new agency policy to not release information about suspects until after their initial court appearance, despite investigators having enough evidence to arrest them.
The Shoshone County Jail did not answer multiple phone calls and does not provide inmate information online. The Shoshone County Coroner was also unreachable Monday.
