Kathy Hedberg of the Lewiston Morning Tribune reported today:
NEZPERCE - Saying that reasonable people would react the same in similar circumstances, Magistrate Stephen J. Calhoun dismissed a felony charge of voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon against Nez Perce Tribal Police officer Robert S. Wall.

Wall, 31, has been on paid administrative leave since the Nov. 12, 2011, incident in which Jeffrey A. Flinn, 46, of Lewiston, was shot to death following a highway chase. A preliminary hearing was held Monday at the Lewis County Courthouse to determine whether the state could produce enough evidence to bind the case over to 2nd District Court.    Calhoun noted that "hindsight is wonderful," and the situation looks different from the comfort of a courtroom than it did that snowy evening along U.S. Highway 95. Flinn led officers on a chase from Waha to the Camas Prairie near Ferdinand after allegedly stealing a pickup truck hours after being released from the Nez Perce County Jail on a drunk driving arrest.  "Looking at this situation," Calhoun said, "I don't see anger. I see fear, I see somebody being pumped up on adrenalin. Any reasonable person in the same situation would feel fear." Evidence in the hearing included two videos recorded from the Nez Perce Tribal Police officers' vehicles.

 

 One of the videos showed Flinn driving erratically and swerving into the northbound lane toward oncoming traffic while driving south on U.S. Highway 95. After driving over a spike strip placed near Craigmont that flattened his vehicle's tires, Flinn eventually veered off to the left side of the road and stopped.

The video then shows the barrel of a shotgun protruding from the driver's window and a flash from a shot being fired.

According to testimony in the hearing, officers then fired back several rounds. Flinn emerged from the vehicle and the rifle dropped to the ground at his feet. The video shows Flinn raising his hands above his head. The shots momentarily paused and Flinn appears to have relaxed a bit, according to testimony from Lewis County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Jason Davis.

Then a lone, final shot rings out and the video shows Flinn dropping to his knees and then to the ground, fatally wounded.

Wall's attorney, Peter C. Erbland of Coeur d'Alene, however, pointed out that the second video shows Wall at an entirely different angle than the video that showed Flinn being shot. The second video, shot from Wall's vehicle, shows the officer's position and his actions of ducking and firing during the gunfight.

Other officers at the scene, Erbland said, could not know what Wall saw, heard or perceived of the situation.

Sirens from at least two police vehicles were deafening, witnesses testified, and officers were not sure whether Flinn was firing back at them.

All of the evidence, Erbland said, shows that Wall "was under tremendous stress he's (acting) like a man who said, 'Yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to be killed.' He was clearly under the threat of deadly force himself."

FBI agent Justin Newsome of Lewiston, who conducted part of the investigation into Flinn's death, said during an interview with Wall, "he said he fired the last shot. He stated that he kept firing until the suspect went down. He couldn't understand why somebody would have their hands in the air" during a gun fight, Newsome said.

"He always knew it was him and he's been kind of wrestling with it since that time," he said.

Another Nez Perce officer in the case, Trevor M. Garrett, is scheduled for trial July 23 at U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene. Garrett has pleaded innocent to making false statements to two FBI agents who investigated the Flinn shooting.

My response to this article was the below letter to the editor:

   Magistrate Stephen J. Calhoun just made it a lot more dangerous for police officers and the public in his dismissal of voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon against Nez Perce Tribal police officer, Robert S. Wall. Any hopes that the bad guys in our society will surrender to police will surely be second guessed now since you just gave the go ahead to shoot surrendering suspects. Whether the officer had improper training or a flaw in his personality the basic principle is not everyone is cut out to be a police officer. We expect our police officers to be highly trained and morally upright servants to our citizens. Judge Calhoun you just made it profoundly more dangerous for police to bring a peaceful resolution to dangerous situations and allowed absolutely no accountability to officer Wall's misjudgment.  Officer Wall's statement to FBI agent Newsome that he couldn't understand why someone would have their hands in the air during a gunfight shows a total lack of the "shoot, don't shoot" judgment needed to be a police officer. It will be interesting to see and the public will be watching on the charge of lying to the FBI by police officer Trevor M. Garrett in this case. All to often, police officer's lie to help cover up fellow officers misbehaviors. I think the FBI got it right in the investigation of officer Wall and hope there case against officer Garrett gets a fair hearing.

 

UPDATE: May 21st, 2013 The Lewiston Morning Tribune posted the footage of the police cam in the Nov. 11, 2011 shooting death of a surrendering, Jeffrey A. Flinn, 46 of Lewiston.

                                                 WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

 

http://youtu.be/668cSYtIrrE