A naked Idaho man was taken into custody after his father was struck in the head with an ax, according to police.
Police with the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), who operate in the Idaho panhandle, arrived at the 300 block of High Bank in Wallace at 9:49 a.m. on Monday, May 15, to find a nude 39-year-old man on the street as well as his father who needed medical assistance, according to a Fox 28 report.
Police said the victim was in critical condition but alive.
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An SCSO Facebook post shared the same day read: “The victim was taken by ambulance to Shoshone Medical and quickly flown to Kootenai hospital where he remains in critical condition but alive.
“The suspect, Nicholas D. Johnson (39) was found on scene nude, taken into custody without incident and charges will be requested.”
Police have launched an investigation to determine what happened in the moments leading up to the attack.
An SCSO spokesperson said that no further information about the attack would be released at of time of writing.
As of Tuesday, May 16, the SCSO has not shared any information about what Johnson has been charged with.
According to Idaho government statistics, there were 17,788 crimes reported in 2021 that had involved an attack on a person, a slight decrease (less than 1 percent) from 2020.
Of these, nearly 59 percent were classed as a simple assault, just over 17 percent as aggravated assault and around 9 percent as intimidation.
The types of weapons used during crimes on a person in Idaho included the following:
- Knife (406)
- Firearm (561)
- Personal weapons (10,520)
- Others (1,966)
Newsweek has contacted the SCSO for comment via email.
In April, an Illinois man rode over someone who was sleeping with a bicycle before he attacked him with an ax.
Arlington Heights Police, who operate northwest of Chicago, responded to a call from an emergency phone box about a disturbance in an underground parking garage on April 16.
When officers arrived, they found the victim lying on the ground and apprehended Mitchell Nowak, 50, from Arlington Heights.
A police report shared on April 17 read: “The victim was asleep in an underground garage when suddenly awoken by the offender. The offender rode a bicycle over the victim’s legs and proceeded to strike the victim with both ends of a medium-sized ax while stating his intention was to kill the victim.
“The victim was able to reach an emergency call box during the attack, which resulted in police being dispatched to the garage. The offender fled after the emergency call was placed.”