Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Idaho rancher killed by deputies over a wounded bull.

I told my dad yesterday that if we are around unknown law enforcement you couldn't pay me to have gun in my hand.

Not anymore, at least. Since everyone else has ideas about what might have happened, I'll throw one out.

Young, inexperienced deputy responds to a crash. People are hurt, trapped in cars and there's a giant injured bull on the side of the road. So he tries to shoot the thing, obviously in all the wrong places, and it just won't die. Now his nerves are fried. He's got the wreck to deal with, he just fired his gun for maybe the first time in a real situation, and the bull still isn't dead.

Then the rancher shows up. The rancher immediately flips out on him, shouting about wasted meat and the suffering bull and what a dumb young punk the cop is.

Words are exchanged and now we've got a full fledged pissing contest going on. The cop tells the rancher to get out of the crash scene and wait. Rancher walks away and sends for a rifle.

Deputy looks over a bit later and sees rancher with a rifle. Deputy grabs rancher by he shoulder and the gun accidentally discharges.

Deputy thinks "this crazy old coot is shooting at me!" and shoots him.

Wife and son-in-law rush toward the rancher, who is at the deputy's feet. Deputy thinks they're rushing at him for shooting the rancher and handcuffs them.

From the perspective of the rancher and his family the deputy is a murderer.

The deputy's perspective IN THE MOMENT THE RIFLE WENT OFF was that he was being shot at. The deputy's perspective now is likely that he made a terrible, terrible mistake.
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My point being that this could all the the result of one terrible, awful misperception. A lot of mistakes led up to that misperception, no doubt, and likely a few spread around on both sides of the coin.

But not everything in life is the result of malice. Sometimes mistakes are made. That doesn't excuse the tragedy of what happened, but it can help explain how it happened.

Reference a few other things.....

If I shot someone at work I wouldn't speak to my boss either. I'm legally required to tell them if there are any outstanding suspects to look for, how many shots I fired and what direction I fired. After that, I won't say anything without my lawyer. That's to protect me and my family, no matter how righteous the shooting. And Yall would be wise to do the same. So I believe that the Sheriff might not have any details from his deputies.

If the rancher was obviously dead (he can be obviously dead without being pronounced dead, that's common sense) I wouldn't perform first aid. After he's dead it's a crime scene. And it's just as likely that they'd be accused of tampering with his body to hide something. If he was obviously dead I'd not touch him.

And the county's legal team says "don't release any videos", that's probably how it'll go. The Sheriff can do whatever he wants, but (at least here) the county commissioners have the purse strings and can play him like a puppet. Especially when they're afraid of a lawsuit. Or they can pressure him to release the videos. But there's always somebody in charge of you, even the mighty Sheriff.

Words the popo dislike. "I want to speak to my lawyer".

Those words will get a man killed and a throwdown tossed at his feet for the Official Police Photographer to present to the sympathetic grand jury panel.

He's just being a cu.nt trying to stir the pot. He made light of all this earlier and stated he had no sympathy, thought all this was funny stuff like some comedy in a far off strange place.

He showed how much respect he has and just wants to rub it in.