Prosecutors add battery charge in fatal Stateline Speedway shooting case

Prosecutors widened the case against Edsel Robert Johnson on Thursday, adding a battery charge to the first-degree murder and reckless driving counts already filed in the fatal Stateline Speedway shooting. The new count sharpens the case around what happened before Bradley Rex was killed and gives prosecutors one more allegation to prove as the matter moves through preliminary hearings in Kootenai County.

Court filings and hearing testimony have centered on a confrontation along North Beck Road during the Lantern Festival crowd at MØDE Stadium Stateline Speedway. Prosecutors said Johnson was working as a DoorDash driver and trying to deliver food when he ran into heavy vehicle and pedestrian congestion. They allege he grew impatient, drove through the crowd, then got out of his van, body-slammed Rex and later shot him in the upper chest. Prosecutors also said Rex swung a chair at Johnson’s van, while the defense has argued the shooting was justified because Rex tried to enter the vehicle by force.

The battery charge appears to track that physical clash, while the murder count remains the core allegation in the case. Johnson allegedly called 911 after the shooting and told police he shot someone. In later interviews, he told officers he was “scared and paranoid.” Prosecutors have maintained that the shooting followed a fast-moving confrontation in a crowded public place, not a split-second encounter on an empty road.

The setting has made the case especially sensitive in Post Falls and across Kootenai County. Event listings for the Night Lights Sky Lantern Festival showed gates opening at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 9, 2026, at MØDE Stadium Stateline Speedway, 1349 N Beck Rd, Post Falls, ID 83854. Prosecutors said thousands had gathered there, and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said deputies and Post Falls police were already in the area because of the crowd. Deputies later detained the suspected shooter as he was leaving in a vehicle, and KCSO said there was no known threat to the public after the shooting.

Johnson was being held on $2 million bail after First District Judge James Combo said he posed a “significant risk” to public safety and ordered no contact with Rex’s family. With the amended charge now added, prosecutors are building a broader case around the confrontation itself as well as the fatal shot, keeping attention fixed on a venue that thousands had packed just hours earlier and on the safety of major county gathering places going forward.