A man ended up in the hospital and a woman was shaken but not seriously hurt after a reported battery broke out downtown on Halloween night, and now Boise police are asking the public to help identify two men captured in photographs connected to the case. The incident happened around 1:50 a.m. near the intersection of 9th and Jefferson, in the heart of Boise's downtown corridor.
The Boise Police Department said it is investigating a reported battery involving a male victim and a female victim, according to KBOI. Police said the adult male victim was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the female victim was not seriously injured.
Detectives have released pictures of two men they want to speak with as part of the investigation, though it remains unclear what role, if any, either man played in the altercation. The department is asking anyone who recognizes the pair, or who has any recordings of the incident, to come forward.
Police Ask Public for Tips and Any Video
Anyone with information about the pictured subjects or any recordings of the incident is asked to call BPD detectives at 208-570-6261, per the same report. No further details about what preceded the reported battery, or what led investigators to focus on the two men in the photos, have been released.
This is not the first time this year that Boise police have turned to the public for help solving a violent incident downtown after asking witnesses for footage. In April, officers responded just before 2:15 a.m. to reports of shots fired near West Grove Street and 15th Street, a separate case detailed by the same outlet's coverage of that shooting. In that incident, the male victim was hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and investigators said preliminary evidence pointed to a dispute between the suspect and victim before shots were fired.
How the April Shooting Case Played Out
In the April case, detectives similarly sought out two witnesses seen on surveillance video who appeared to have recorded the shooting, a tactic that mirrors the request now being made in the Halloween battery investigation. That earlier case moved quickly: police arrested Ryan Norton-Putnam the following day and booked him into the Ada County Jail on a felony aggravated battery charge, the report noted.
Whether the Halloween night case will follow a similar path remains to be seen. For now, investigators have not said whether they have identified or located the two men in the photographs, and no arrests have been announced in connection with the 9th and Jefferson incident.
