Pass The Ammo

A fleeing liquor store thief opened fire on the Idaho State Police up in Bonner County. Big mistake.

I love the tight grouping shown in the window glass. That’s called gun control.

SANDPOINT - No criminal charges will be pursued against law officers who shot and killed a liquor store theft suspect who opened fire on them.
“What they did was absolutely by the book,” Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson said on Wednesday.

Robinson declined to identify the officers who were involved in the shooting death of Mark Eric Betts on July 7 north of Ponderay. Idaho State Police conducted an investigation into the incident, but reports were not immediately available on Wednesday.

The voluminous ISP investigation, which included footage from video cameras mounted in police vehicles, served as the basis for Robinson’s determination that no criminal charges were warranted.

Betts, a 49-year-old from Hope, was accused of stealing two half-gallon bottles of Canadian whiskey and a bottle of liqueur from the state liquor store in the Bonner Mall and threatening a clerk with a small wooden club when he was followed out to the parking lot.

Betts fled north on U.S. Highway 95 with Ponderay Police and Bonner County Sheriff’s deputies in pursuit. The chase ended on Colburn Culver Road, where he rammed a police vehicle with his Chevrolet Blazer.

After coming to a stop, Betts was ordered to surrender, according to Robinson’s charging determination memo to state police. Betts, however, emerged from his sport utility vehicle and fired a round from a .380-caliber pistol at a uniformed law officer, the memo said.

Law officers returned fire and Betts was fatally shot.

“The use of firearms and force by the law enforcement officers was lawful and justified,” Robinson said in the memo. Read More…