A four-hour standoff between a 36-year-old man and police at a south Boise trailer park may have ended peacefully early Thursday morning but started the other way when he shot at an Ada County Sheriff’s deputy at the end of brief vehicle pursuit.
Peter T. Kuyper is charged with felony counts of aggravated assault/battery on a law enforcement officer and eluding arrest in connection with the incident. Other charges are possible.
The incident began around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday when several people called into Ada County dispatch saying they saw the driver of a Chevy pickup truck – later identified as Kuyper — fire several shots either at a white minivan or up in the air on Meridian Road near the Franklin Road intersection.(Investigators found several shell casings on the road near the intersection a short time later). It is unclear why he fired.
Witnesses then said they saw the truck go east on Interstate 84. An ACSO deputy saw the truck a short time later and joined a Boise Police officer as they did a traffic stop on Kuyper near the Orchard Road off-ramp.
Kuyper pulled the truck over, stopped on the side of the road and began yelling at the officers, who asked him to get out. Kuyper refused and then took off, driving at a high rate of speed and into oncoming traffic. A brief vehicle pursuit ensued.
The pursuit ended moments later on W. Airport Road at the Mountain View RV Park just before 9:45 p.m. when Kuyper stopped the truck, jumped out, and fired at least one shot at the ACSO deputy, who was standing next to his patrol car. Kuyper then ran away went into a nearby trailer.
The deputy was not hit or hurt by the shot. Investigators later found a shell casing on the ground where Kuyper was seen firing the shot.
Boise police and ACSO deputies then set up a perimeter around the trailer and began negotiating with Kuyper to surrender. He eventually left around 2:20 a.m. Boise Police arrested him without further incident at the point and took him to the Ada County Jail.
Kuyper is set to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon.