ID - Ranchers wife: I saw them murder my husband

[Woodland]

The rifle’s barrel was about 2 feet from the bull, and Jack Yantis’ finger was on the trigger.

“Everything was going as planned. … I did not notice any conversation at all” between Jack Yantis and the deputies, Paradis said. “Then the one cop turned around and grabbed his shoulder and jerked him backwards.”

The deputy came from behind, spun Yantis around and grabbed the rifle’s scope, Paradis said.

The deputy pushed Yantis. The rifle was still in Yantis’ hands, its barrel pointed at the ground. Yantis was trying to regain his footing.

Paradis said he does not know whether the rifle fired, but he thinks it might have discharged accidentally when the deputy grabbed Yantis and spun him, or when one of the deputy’s bullets pierced Yantis’ hand holding the rifle, hitting the gun and damaging it.

One deputy began shooting at Yantis, then the other deputy started shooting.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article43654638.html

The above is the Y family version of events - a deputy grabbing the scope of the gun is the most troubling to me. He must have grabbed from behind as who would advance toward someone with a rifle pointed at them?

To me, that set off the deadly encounter, especially if the deputies did not say a word to JY. JY would not have known what was happening or what the deputies wanted. Ballistics will show the direction of any bullet fired from JY's rifle, and how close either deputy was when they fired.

ISP is stalling now. The FBI will soon look the same unless they release something in the next few days. Jmo.

 

[KaaBoom]

it is very misleading to describe someone as "no stranger to police" when all they have is an 18 year old resisting/obstruction charge and a 13 year old DUI...

Exactly, chances are that the Deputies who shot him weren’t even working there at the time he was arrested. If he was not a stranger to the police in the area, than chances are thats because he is a well known rancher in the county. Not because he was arrested for DUI decades ago.

 

[Sonya610]

Exactly, chances are that the Deputies who shot him weren’t even working there at the time he was arrested.

The deputies were definitely not working there 18 years ago, one had been a deputy for 2 years and the other 15 years (not necessarily in that county).

 

[Zuri]

If public perception counts for anything, and granted we only have one side of the story, it looks like LE is scrambling to put a spin on this where they were justified.

If the statements of the two family members are true, the lack of assistance to Mr. Yantis and the treatment of his wife and nephew speak volumes. IMO LE panicked, over reacted and now have to deal with the fallout.

 

[Woodland]

Interesting article imo dated 14 Nov 2015.

The first rule of bureaucratic crisis management is: “Find someone else to blame.” This is true even in agencies as small as the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
...

Furthermore, the objective in staging multiple investigations is not thoroughness, but diffusion of responsibility. There is a vanishingly small possibility that the still-unnamed and still-publicly compensated killers could be put on trial for criminal homicide, or face federal civil rights charges in the event no state charges are filed. On previous performance it’s more likely that the two “independent” investigations, which will be sharing the same evidence, will both rule the killing “justified.” Should that happen, Yantis’s family and friends will receive the familiar condescending lecture about the need to “respect the process.” In less elevated language this means, essentially, “Sucks to be you.”
...

... Threats of the kind Zollman allegedly received are precipitated by frustration over the privileged status of law enforcement officers implicated in wrongful deaths or other acts of criminal violence.

Like all “official” investigations of its kind, the inquiry into the killing of Jack Yantis is a liturgy intended to reinforce the “legitimacy” of the agency that employed the killers. This is why the pursuit of actual justice is a task that cannot be entrusted to the “professionals."

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.ca/2015/11/justice-for-jack-yantis-dont-leave.html

 

[mikkismom]

Rancher’s shooting: Question of video evidence remains, but use of officer cameras has grown in Valley

If there is video, telling public could compromise investigation, ISP says


Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article45873070.html#storylink=cpy

 

[LietKynes]

Am marking my spot....

My .02 is that Yantis didn't need to die -- what were those deputies thinking ???
Holy schmoly... how the heck did this situation devolve into such a cluster F. ?? Smh.

I'm all for obeying what LE tells one to do ; but I'm assuming Yantis was going to try to put down his bull -- not engage in a shootout with the cops !
There really needs to be an accounting for what happened that night.
:moo:

Rest in peace to Mr. Yantis ; my condolence to his family.

 

[bluesneakers]

Interview with Donna Yantis.

Jack Yantis' wife speaks out following Adams County shooting

“The community wants justice. That’s our main objective. Justice. Somebody’s gotta pay for what they did. It was murder,” she said.

“People have told me all of the things people have been doing. The marchers and things like that which are great,” Donna said. “It feels good that there is people out there supporting us for the cause of justice that we don’t even know. Thank you to everybody.”

Heartbreaking.

 

[bluesneakers]

Sheriff Releases Names of Idaho Deputies Who Killed Rancher

Cody Rolland, 38, has been a full-time deputy with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office since July. Brian Wood, 31, has been with the sheriff’s office since June 2013. Sheriff Ryan Zollman said he had been hesitant to release their names, citing concern for their safety and the need for an impartial investigation.

Releasing the names is “the first step toward accountability and justice,” Paul Winward, an attorney for the family, told the Idaho Statesman.

 

[bluesneakers]

For the most part this is an opinion piece but it raises some interesting questions. There are few facts available but people in rural areas might be more likely to be armed, incidents are less likely to be filmed, officers are less likely to have back up.

Why Westerners die at the hands of cops

As of Dec. 7, the Guardian’s series “The Counted” shows Western states filling six of the top 10 places for officer-involved deaths per capita in 2015, with Wyoming fourth in the country. New Mexico, a state of just 2 million people, has seen 18 people killed by the police so far this year

Yet rural areas have been equally bloody. Indeed, only two of Washington’s 21 fatalities this year were at the hands of Seattle police, and many took place far from any major towns. And sparsely populated areas like Eagar, Arizona, Dillon, Montana, and Parowan, Utah, have seen killings in recent months. In some cases, like that of Idaho’s Jack Yantis, the circumstances remain muddy.

As for Jack Yantis:

The Idaho State Police has refused to release any video of Yantis’ death despite a request from the Idaho Freedom Foundation, citing Idaho state law and the pending investigation.

 

[Zuri]

http://kboi2.com/news/local/council-shooting-six-months-later

http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/jack-yantis-supporters-want-answers-rally-in-boise/207330608

 

[bluesneakers]

EXCLUSIVE: Deputies involved in Jack Yantis shooting talk about the controversial night

Wood and Roland elaborated on their online details following a 9-month investigation by the Idaho Attorney General's office. Neither deputy was charged in the shooting death, but a civil suit has been filed by the Yantis family.

During the exclusive interview, Deputy Roland and Deputy Wood said the statement that Donna Yantis made claiming that the officers had murdered her husband is false.

Video of interview at the link.

 

[bluesneakers]

No charges in Yantis shooting

State and federal prosecutors in Idaho say there is insufficient evidence to convict the two Adams County sheriff’s deputies involved in the fatal shooting Nov. 1 of rancher Jack Yantis on the highway in front of his ranch.

 

[Fairy1]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4986246/Family-sues-doomsday-prepping-deputy-rancher.html

The family of an Idaho rancher allege he was shot dead in a hail of bullets fired by a trigger-happy doomsday-prepper cop.

Jack Yantis, 62, was killed after Deputy Brian Wood and his partner called him to euthanize his own bull, which had been struck by a vehicle in November 2015.

Arriving to find his animal still alive despite having been shot six times by Woods with his AR-15 assault rifle, Yantis allegedly became angry at the inhumane method of his bull's execution.