A 33-year-old Meridian man is charged with aggravated battery after using knives to cut two people he was camping and fishing with by Swan Falls Dam over the weekend.
William Miles Buckman is also charged with two counts of second-degree kidnapping for holding the same two people at knifepoint.
Neither of the two people who had knife wounds suffered life-threatening injuries.
Ada County Sheriff’s Deputies and Kuna Police began their investigation just after 5 a.m. Sunday after getting a 911 call that a man was attacking people with a knife near Swan Falls Dam.
When deputies arrived they found a man and woman in a pickup truck with knife wounds, but did not see the attacker. Deputies found Buckman moments later trying to get into a building attached to the dam.
Deputies took Buckman into custody. One of the victims went to a local hospital for treatment of what appear to be non life-threatening knife wounds, while the other two were treated at the scene.
Witnesses told deputies that Buckman was fishing on the dam — and drinking alcohol — with a group of people for most of the night while others in the group were sleeping in a tent on the bank of the river.
At some point early Sunday morning, Buckman got angry with the couple in the tent.
While detectives are still trying to determine exactly what the fight was about, at least one witness said it was because the people in the tent would not go into the river to retrieve a flashlight someone else dropped into the water.
Witnesses say Buckman walked over to the tent and started to threaten the couple inside, cutting the tent with a knife. Once the couple were out of the tent, there was a physical struggle between Buckman and the man during which the man was cut on the arm.
Witnesses say Buckman then held the couple at knifepoint and made them walk over to a nearby truck as part of the dispute about the flashlight.
That’s when another fight broke out. Both the man and woman sustained lacerations as they fought with Buckman. The man had knife wounds on the neck, shoulder, and arm. The woman had a knife wound on her arm. Buckman is also accused of grabbing another woman around the neck who was trying to get the knife away from him as he fought with the couple.
After doing interviews and collecting evidence, deputies arrested Buckman on the aggravated battery and kidnapping charges and booked him into the Ada County Jail around noon Sunday.
Buckman will make his initial court appearance Monday afternoon. The crime of aggravated battery is punishable by up to 15 years in prison for each separate charge.