Stabbing at Western Idaho Fair was within fairgrounds, per Ada County Sheriff’s Office

The initial argument and stabbing that led to two people being injured at the Western Idaho Fair late Friday was inside the fairgrounds, according to new information released by the Ada County Sheriff’s Office.

An altercation broke out about 9:45 p.m. between a group of people and resulted in an 18-year-old man getting stabbed in the elbow and a 16-year-old boy accidentally shooting himself, the Sheriff’s Office said in a blog post Saturday.

The incident occurred near the carnival rides. The Western Idaho Fair is at 5610 Glenwood St. in Garden City.

Following the stabbing, the two victims along with a group of people were running toward Glenwood Drive “when the 16-year-old somehow shot himself” in the western parking lot of the fair near Midway Drive, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities said they are “still determining” what led to the shooting and why people were running in the parking lot.

Ada County sheriff’s deputies were nearby when the shooting occurred and able to quickly respond to the shooting victim, but it took a while to find the 18-year-old.

Patrick Orr, a spokesperson for the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, previously told the Idaho Statesman that the 16-year-old was taken to the hospital. Both the boy and the 18-year-old were treated for their injuries, the blog post said. Orr did not provide additional information on the victims’ status Saturday.

Orr also said that police recovered the gun. Under Idaho law, anyone under the age of 18 is not allowed to possess a handgun.

No one has been arrested, and no suspects identified, authorities said. The Sheriff’s Office said that they’ve found and identified “some of the people” involved in the incident and are continuing to investigate.

Western Idaho Fair Director Bob Batista told the Statesman by phone that because of state laws, guns are allowed within the fairgrounds.

Batista also said that the fair does not allow certain types of weapons including knives, hatchets or other types of sharp objects.

It is not clear how the weapon involved in the stabbing made its way into the fair. Ada County Sgt. Craig Durrell told the Statesman by phone that the Sheriff’s Office is still investigating.

Shooting leads to Friday closures at fair

The shooting led sheriff’s deputies to close off the parking and fair gates for approximately 30 minutes to “keep fairgoers safe,” according to the blog post. Andrea Deardon, the director of communication for the Sheriff’s Office, told the Statesman on Friday that any time the department is looking for a suspect they want to make sure the area is secure.

“We know it was confusing and perhaps frightening for people at the fair tonight,” the Sheriff’s Office posted on Twitter on Friday night. “Deputies acted quickly to figure out what was going on and keep people safe, which was why the parking lots and gates were closed.” The altercation caused people visiting the fairgrounds to receive a code red warning, Deardon said.

The Sheriff’s Office said there was “some confusion” and “short tempers” Friday night since people weren’t able to leave the parking lot or the fairgrounds. The blog post also said that once parking lots were reopened, there were traffic delays.

Orr told the Statesman by email Saturday that there were about 20 deputies at the fair around the time of the altercation, along with a few additional deputies that were on patrol.

The Western Idaho Fair opened for its normal hours Saturday, according to the organization’s Facebook page.

In the 23 years Batista’s been the director of the Western Idaho Fair, he said he’s never seen an incident like this.

“I want to applaud the Ada County Sheriff’s Office for what they did.” Batista told the Statesman. “They made this place safe for everybody to stay here until they had this investigation and the crime scene ready to go. We feel very confident in what we have here as a security team.