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Whats worse about this is it was NOT a 'Criminal' issue - it was a traffic accident that that somehow escalated into a shooting. IMO that places a greater burden on the Sheriff's Dept for justification.
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Rancher/Sheriff Idaho shooting
- Thread Starter Oregonhunter5
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Family members have shared with the Statesman their account of what happened last Sunday night. The account is in written statements prepared with attorneys the family hired after the incident, a video statement Donna Yantis made from her Boise hospital bed, and a draft transcript the lawyers prepared of one family member's account of what happened.
The Statesman also interviewed several family members, including Rowdy Paradis, a nephew of the couple's who said he witnessed the shootings.
"Law enforcement should be trained to de-escalate situations," said Rowdy Paradis. "In this case, I stood 10 feet away and watched two deputies escalate the situation and needlessly kill a man."
Sheriff Ryan Zollman did not respond Saturday to an emailed request for comment on the family's account or to a message left with a sheriff's dispatcher.
Here is what the family says happened on Nov. 1:
A PHONE CALL AT DINNER
The Yantises, Paradis (pronounced PAR-a-dis) and a family friend, Joe Rumsey, were finishing dinner about 6:45 p.m. Sunday in the Yantises' home near milepost 142 of U.S. 95, about 6 miles north of Council.
THEY HAD BEEN TOGETHER SINCE THEY WERE LITTLE KIDS. THIS WAS THEIR DREAM. I MEAN, HE CUT LOGS FOR 20 YEARS TO PAY FOR THIS PLACE.
Nephew Rowdy Paradis on Jack and Donna Yantis and their ranch
An Adams County Sheriff's Office dispatcher called. One of the family's bulls had just been hit by a car on the highway, and the Yantises needed to go take care of it.
In rural open range, collisions between vehicles and livestock are not uncommon. Ranchers often must put down the injured animals. Jack Yantis had unfortunately done it before.
Yantis had raised and tamed the 2,500-pound black Gelbvieh bull, similar to an Angus, named Keiford. Its rear leg was shattered by the collision with a Subaru station wagon. The bull started charging people at the crash scene.
Paradis walked down to check out the situation. The injured bull had made its way back to the driveway and was lying in the grass.
"He knew he was home," Paradis said. "He was hurt. But he is still an Angus bull on the fight."
DEPUTIES SHOOT BULL
Jack Yantis told Paradis to get a rifle, the family's skid-steer loader (a small front-end loader) and a chain. Paradis in turn asked his aunt to the get the family's .204-caliber rifle and bring it to the road.
Yantis took a small all-terrain vehicle, in this case a four-wheeler, down the driveway and parked it on the highway facing the animal.
JACK WENT TO THE END OF THE DRIVEWAY TO END THE BULL'S LIFE AND PROTECT ANYONE FROM GETTING HURT, INCLUDING THE VERY DEPUTIES WHO SHOT AND KILLED HIM.
Donna Yantis, widow
While Paradis was getting the skid loader, the deputies started shooting at the bull. At least one of them had a semiautomatic rifle, perhaps an AR-15, an adaptation of the military M16.
"They opened up with their pistols and their M16s ... before Jack got there," Paradis said. "That's an inhumane deal. ... This is a 2-ton Angus bull that's pissed off, he's hurt and psychotic. ... It was blazing down there and it sounded like World War III on this bull, because they got him charging at everyone again."
Paradis drove the skid loader down the driveway and parked on the highway. The bull was lying on the pavement. Donna Yantis had walked the rifle to her husband. Jack Yantis was standing about 4 feet from the bull, aiming the rifle at the back of the bull's head. His back was to the two deputies, who were standing in the far lane facing each other as if they were having a conversation.
"I put the (skid loader's) lights on him and the bull, and he lined up to shoot the bull in the back of head and put him out humanely," Paradis said.
DEPUTIES SHOOT YANTIS
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.
HANDCUFFS AND A HEART ATTACK
Donna Yantis said she and Paradis screamed at the deputies to stop.
Shot in the chest and abdomen, Jack Yantis fell to the ground. Neither deputy went to check on him. Paradis and Donna Yantis started running toward him.
"And then they threatened me and my nephew ... threw us on the middle of Highway 95, searched us and handcuffed us, and wouldn't let us go take care of Jack," Donna Yantis said.
Paradis said one deputy pointed his gun at Paradis' head.
Donna Yantis had a heart attack. Some time later, she was taken by ambulance to Midvale and then by helicopter to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where she remained hospitalized Saturday.
Rumsey, the family friend at dinner, had been near the wrecked car when the shooting started and ran toward Jack. The deputies handcuffed him, too.
'IT WAS A SENSELESS MURDER'
One deputy said he had been grazed by a bullet, Rumsey said. "I asked him, 'Where?' I said, 'That's bull----.' There was no blood, no torn thread, no powder burn. There was nothing."
After the shooting, Paradis said, the deputies' demeanor was "smug" and "almost celebratory."
A deputy walked over, pulled Yantis' rifle from under his body and threw it into the grass.
"There was no shootout. It was a senseless murder," the Yantis' daughter, Sarah, told the Statesman.
MY DAD IS DEAD AND THE TWO DEPUTIES WHO KILLED HIM ARE ON PAID VACATION. THAT MAKES ME ANGRY.
Sarah Yantis, daughter
Meanwhile, the bull was still alive, slowly bleeding out on the roadway. Family members asked the deputies to put it down to end its suffering. No one did.
"The bull ended up lying there for two hours," Paradis said, "suffocating in his own lung blood because they shot him in the gut."
Cynthia Sewell: 208-377-6428, @CynthiaSewell
POLICE, FAMILY LAWYERS SEEK WITNESSES
The two Adams County deputies are on paid leave pending an Idaho State Police investigation into the Nov. 1 shooting.
"ISP reassures those involved in this incident, their families and the public at large, that they are committed to complete a thorough investigation into this incident to determine exactly what transpired," spokeswoman Teresa Baker said in a news release last week.
"ISP detectives are continuing to conduct interviews and are methodically examining each piece of evidence. Physical evidence will be sent to forensic labs for analysis in hopes of revealing further facts that will help piece together the events that unfolded that night.
"The testing of forensic evidence and an investigation of this nature takes time, and ISP and the Adams County Sheriff's Office request patience as the investigation process continues. There will not be any information or comments on the evidence involved in this incident until the investigation is complete."
ISP will submit its findings to a prosecutor who will decide if charges will be filed.
Rowdy Paradis said he has already met with an ISP detective and will meet with him again soon.
"Outside of Jeff Brown with Adams County Sheriff's Office, Idaho State Police were the first people to treat any of us as humans, let alone victims," Paradis said. "(The detective) has been very comforting to talk to."
ISP asks anyone who witnessed the events leading up to, or after, the shooting to contact them at (20
884-7110.
The Yantises' attorneys, Matthew Taylor and Paul Winward, of Boise, also want to hear from witnesses or anyone with information about the shooting. Contact them via email [email protected].
THEY HAD BEEN TOGETHER SINCE THEY WERE LITTLE KIDS. THIS WAS THEIR DREAM. I MEAN, HE CUT LOGS FOR 20 YEARS TO PAY FOR THIS PLACE.
Nephew Rowdy Paradis on Jack and Donna Yantis and their ranch
Cynthia Sewell: 208-377-6428, @CynthiaSewell
The Statesman also interviewed several family members, including Rowdy Paradis, a nephew of the couple's who said he witnessed the shootings.
"Law enforcement should be trained to de-escalate situations," said Rowdy Paradis. "In this case, I stood 10 feet away and watched two deputies escalate the situation and needlessly kill a man."
Sheriff Ryan Zollman did not respond Saturday to an emailed request for comment on the family's account or to a message left with a sheriff's dispatcher.
Here is what the family says happened on Nov. 1:
A PHONE CALL AT DINNER
The Yantises, Paradis (pronounced PAR-a-dis) and a family friend, Joe Rumsey, were finishing dinner about 6:45 p.m. Sunday in the Yantises' home near milepost 142 of U.S. 95, about 6 miles north of Council.
THEY HAD BEEN TOGETHER SINCE THEY WERE LITTLE KIDS. THIS WAS THEIR DREAM. I MEAN, HE CUT LOGS FOR 20 YEARS TO PAY FOR THIS PLACE.
Nephew Rowdy Paradis on Jack and Donna Yantis and their ranch
An Adams County Sheriff's Office dispatcher called. One of the family's bulls had just been hit by a car on the highway, and the Yantises needed to go take care of it.
In rural open range, collisions between vehicles and livestock are not uncommon. Ranchers often must put down the injured animals. Jack Yantis had unfortunately done it before.
Yantis had raised and tamed the 2,500-pound black Gelbvieh bull, similar to an Angus, named Keiford. Its rear leg was shattered by the collision with a Subaru station wagon. The bull started charging people at the crash scene.
Paradis walked down to check out the situation. The injured bull had made its way back to the driveway and was lying in the grass.
"He knew he was home," Paradis said. "He was hurt. But he is still an Angus bull on the fight."
DEPUTIES SHOOT BULL
Jack Yantis told Paradis to get a rifle, the family's skid-steer loader (a small front-end loader) and a chain. Paradis in turn asked his aunt to the get the family's .204-caliber rifle and bring it to the road.
Yantis took a small all-terrain vehicle, in this case a four-wheeler, down the driveway and parked it on the highway facing the animal.
JACK WENT TO THE END OF THE DRIVEWAY TO END THE BULL'S LIFE AND PROTECT ANYONE FROM GETTING HURT, INCLUDING THE VERY DEPUTIES WHO SHOT AND KILLED HIM.
Donna Yantis, widow
While Paradis was getting the skid loader, the deputies started shooting at the bull. At least one of them had a semiautomatic rifle, perhaps an AR-15, an adaptation of the military M16.
"They opened up with their pistols and their M16s ... before Jack got there," Paradis said. "That's an inhumane deal. ... This is a 2-ton Angus bull that's pissed off, he's hurt and psychotic. ... It was blazing down there and it sounded like World War III on this bull, because they got him charging at everyone again."
Paradis drove the skid loader down the driveway and parked on the highway. The bull was lying on the pavement. Donna Yantis had walked the rifle to her husband. Jack Yantis was standing about 4 feet from the bull, aiming the rifle at the back of the bull's head. His back was to the two deputies, who were standing in the far lane facing each other as if they were having a conversation.
"I put the (skid loader's) lights on him and the bull, and he lined up to shoot the bull in the back of head and put him out humanely," Paradis said.
DEPUTIES SHOOT YANTIS
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.
HANDCUFFS AND A HEART ATTACK
Donna Yantis said she and Paradis screamed at the deputies to stop.
Shot in the chest and abdomen, Jack Yantis fell to the ground. Neither deputy went to check on him. Paradis and Donna Yantis started running toward him.
"And then they threatened me and my nephew ... threw us on the middle of Highway 95, searched us and handcuffed us, and wouldn't let us go take care of Jack," Donna Yantis said.
Paradis said one deputy pointed his gun at Paradis' head.
Donna Yantis had a heart attack. Some time later, she was taken by ambulance to Midvale and then by helicopter to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where she remained hospitalized Saturday.
Rumsey, the family friend at dinner, had been near the wrecked car when the shooting started and ran toward Jack. The deputies handcuffed him, too.
'IT WAS A SENSELESS MURDER'
One deputy said he had been grazed by a bullet, Rumsey said. "I asked him, 'Where?' I said, 'That's bull----.' There was no blood, no torn thread, no powder burn. There was nothing."
After the shooting, Paradis said, the deputies' demeanor was "smug" and "almost celebratory."
A deputy walked over, pulled Yantis' rifle from under his body and threw it into the grass.
"There was no shootout. It was a senseless murder," the Yantis' daughter, Sarah, told the Statesman.
MY DAD IS DEAD AND THE TWO DEPUTIES WHO KILLED HIM ARE ON PAID VACATION. THAT MAKES ME ANGRY.
Sarah Yantis, daughter
Meanwhile, the bull was still alive, slowly bleeding out on the roadway. Family members asked the deputies to put it down to end its suffering. No one did.
"The bull ended up lying there for two hours," Paradis said, "suffocating in his own lung blood because they shot him in the gut."
Cynthia Sewell: 208-377-6428, @CynthiaSewell
POLICE, FAMILY LAWYERS SEEK WITNESSES
The two Adams County deputies are on paid leave pending an Idaho State Police investigation into the Nov. 1 shooting.
"ISP reassures those involved in this incident, their families and the public at large, that they are committed to complete a thorough investigation into this incident to determine exactly what transpired," spokeswoman Teresa Baker said in a news release last week.
"ISP detectives are continuing to conduct interviews and are methodically examining each piece of evidence. Physical evidence will be sent to forensic labs for analysis in hopes of revealing further facts that will help piece together the events that unfolded that night.
"The testing of forensic evidence and an investigation of this nature takes time, and ISP and the Adams County Sheriff's Office request patience as the investigation process continues. There will not be any information or comments on the evidence involved in this incident until the investigation is complete."
ISP will submit its findings to a prosecutor who will decide if charges will be filed.
Rowdy Paradis said he has already met with an ISP detective and will meet with him again soon.
"Outside of Jeff Brown with Adams County Sheriff's Office, Idaho State Police were the first people to treat any of us as humans, let alone victims," Paradis said. "(The detective) has been very comforting to talk to."
ISP asks anyone who witnessed the events leading up to, or after, the shooting to contact them at (20
884-7110.The Yantises' attorneys, Matthew Taylor and Paul Winward, of Boise, also want to hear from witnesses or anyone with information about the shooting. Contact them via email [email protected].
THEY HAD BEEN TOGETHER SINCE THEY WERE LITTLE KIDS. THIS WAS THEIR DREAM. I MEAN, HE CUT LOGS FOR 20 YEARS TO PAY FOR THIS PLACE.
Nephew Rowdy Paradis on Jack and Donna Yantis and their ranch
Cynthia Sewell: 208-377-6428, @CynthiaSewell
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So, these deputies WERE as stupid as the cops on the Canadian vid.
Just outrageous.
Course not as outrageous as murdering Yantis and how they treated his wife and the others.
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So, if a car has a cam, and officers have cams, but they aren't turned on, is that Obstruction?
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Dereliction of duty at the very least....
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Someone should have told these guys that they were no longer in the Sandbox
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Wow. Unbelieveable.
If all of the story above turns out to be accurate, I hope they prosecute with both barrels.
If all of the story above turns out to be accurate, I hope they prosecute with both barrels.
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It would be odd to not have a single camera on. The only officers who dont see them as a benefit are the ones from Training Day. More often than not, they vindicate an officer rather than incriminate.
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Better yet these men having committed an act of incredible disgrace should follow the way of the Ninjutsu and commit Hara-Kiri to appease the family.
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Something tells me the demographic of Adams County doesnt consist of too many who have Samurai values.
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I would ponder that he may not make the elections..............
.......cause HE SAID HIS DEPUTIES knew livestock or had it. Putting it on himself as believing they knew what they were doing.He kinda backed them up at first.
I can see something.....someone writing....it's a resignation
May as well and get out of town
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"One must have a heart beat to ride outa town"
Everyone involved gets a 'Get Outa Death Card'
except the innocent victim.
Everyone involved gets a 'Get Outa Death Card'
except the innocent victim.
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Anyone see this article? Two cops open fire on this vehicle with a 6yo kid in it?
Yes they were serving a warrant,but can't we talk about this before just shooting?
<broken link removed>
It is said that the two officers in Idaho did not check on Yantis after they shot him
Then handcuffed his wife and two friends trying to check on him also
What are we hiring or employing at our police departments? Isn't anyone but the fox watching the hen house?
This is what the police union has formed the entire police force in America into.
Yes there are exceptions,but when NONE of your colleges are going to jail for murder it creates the " absolute power creates absolute corruption" atmosphere and this is what the results are.
These police chiefs have to understand why folks are hating on them these days.
This is the stuff that's supposed to happen in big cities,not in rural America
Now that it has come to the country,maybe the country folk will understand why the cops are in the news all the time
Something will have to change,soon
Yes they were serving a warrant,but can't we talk about this before just shooting?
<broken link removed>
It is said that the two officers in Idaho did not check on Yantis after they shot him
Then handcuffed his wife and two friends trying to check on him also
What are we hiring or employing at our police departments? Isn't anyone but the fox watching the hen house?
This is what the police union has formed the entire police force in America into.
Yes there are exceptions,but when NONE of your colleges are going to jail for murder it creates the " absolute power creates absolute corruption" atmosphere and this is what the results are.
These police chiefs have to understand why folks are hating on them these days.
This is the stuff that's supposed to happen in big cities,not in rural America
Now that it has come to the country,maybe the country folk will understand why the cops are in the news all the time
Something will have to change,soon
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Amen! I'm in no way condoning retaliation, but it is what it is. Rural people have a habit of solving their own problems in some pretty direct ways.If this account is true... those deputies' days on earth could be abruptly ended if they remain in the area, conviction or not.
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People run of those mountain roads all the time
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Thats why being a Montana Fish and Game officer is the most dangerous job in law enforcement.
Im aware of this thread but not really following it so I dont know if this article was already posted but I have a hunch y'all will be very interested in reading this if you have not already.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article43654638.html
if this is already posted then carry on....
http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/article43654638.html
if this is already posted then carry on....
In support of the deputies....If I were in the position of needing to get people to safety, as in people injured in a car accident, and there were an aggressive bull attacking, I would absolutely be shooting said bull with whatever I had at hand, 9mm, .40, .223....Pea shooter! Which of you would sit and watch people needing help suffer, and maybe die?
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^^^ Although I agree that some sort of action needs to be taken, it's about taking correct action, not "do something, even if it's wrong." If cops don't have sufficient firearms training, then, just like the average citizen, it's their responsibility to get the training. Perhaps they were trying to disable the bull in any way possible, and that gut shots were all they had. I don't know. But I just can't understand why they were alarmed by the rancher, that they requested come to the scene, when he was doing the job properly.
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The rancher was shooting the bull. The cop grabbed his shoulder, and spun him around. That's what caused hell to break loose.
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