Cowell shuts down two more felon

Cowell shuts down two more felons

March 12, 2014

On August 29, 2012, Bonners Ferry Police Officer Willie Cowell, during a routine traffic stop, made the biggest heroin bust ever in the state of Idaho, taking 8.1 pounds of the drug off the street and sending two to prison on federal charges. On Tuesday, he pulled off his second "once in a career" arrest.

"This is a career case for an officer," then new police chief Steve Benkula said after two felons, one a suspect in a homicide, were taken off the streets in the 2012 arrest. "It doesn't happen often."

Cowell was on patrol at 6:30 a.m. when he saw a traffic violation. He pulled the rig over on Highway 95 at Sunrise Road on the North Hill, and almost immediately, he recognized that this stop was going to anything but routine.

While he chatted with the driver, he saw, in plain view, what looked to his trained eye to be methamphetamines. When he ran the identification, he learned that one of the men in the vehicle, Kenneth Flowerdew, 46, Coeur d'Alene, was on felony probation.

Cowell called for backup and went back to the car to make an arrest, but when he did, Flowerdew allegedly attacked him, forcing Cowell to deploy his taser to bring the man under control. Within moments, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent on the Boundary County Drug Task Force arrived to help, and an off-duty Bonner County sheriff's deputy on his way to work saw the altercation and stopped to help.

When Flowerdew and his compatriot, 33-year-old Richard Allen, also of the Coeur d'Alene area, were both safely restrained and in custody, the substance Cowell had initially spotted tested positive, and background checks showed that both men are considered career habitual offenders.

Allen was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and possession of paraphernalia. Flowerdew was charged with possession of a controlled substance and assault and battery on a peace officer, both felonies, as well as resisting arrest.

Both men remain in custody at the Boundary County jail on $100,000 bond each, and another new Bonners Ferry Police Chief, Bob Boone, is duly impressed with the caliber of officer he has in Willie Cowell.

"He's a street monster," Boone said. "I love him!"

After the morning's excitement, Cowell went to Boundary Community Hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries he sustained in the fight and released to finish his shift and go home, once again, to his family, with two dangerous felons safely behind bars where they are no longer a threat to the community.

For a dedicated peace officer, there's no better outcome.