The deputy and officer who shot a baseball-bat-wielding Thermopolis man to death in September acted within Wyoming’s self-defense laws and won’t be criminally charged, the special prosecutor on the case announced Friday.
Fremont County Attorney Patrick LeBrun was assigned to investigate a Thermopolis Police Department officer and Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Deputy’s Sept. 9 shooting of Jared Gottula, 41.
LeBrun reviewed the independent investigation of the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), which he called “thorough and complete” in a determination letter he released Friday. The prosecutor then concluded that the deputy and officer, whom he does not identify by name in his letter, were justified under the state’s self-defense laws due to the relentless, aggressive and unyielding nature of Gottula’s many attempts to hurt the agents with a metal baseball bat.
LeBrun has had a long-standing policy of not identifying police agents found justified in critical incidents.
Officers Justified
“The minds of law enforcement personnel involved in this case from beginning to end were focused on stopping Mr. Gottula’s dangerous and threatening behavior in the least violent manner possible,” wrote LeBrun in his decision letter. “They were required to do so with not only their safety in mind but the safety of several citizen bystanders that had gathered in the immediate vicinity.”
Gottula showed focus and determination to hurt the officer and deputy and never once indicated he intended to surrender despite “ample opportunity,” says the letter.
“He simply would not stop the violence,” wrote LeBrun.
Gottula was suffering from an unspecified mental illness, the letter says.
“However, nothing about Mr. Gottula’s mental illness reduced the right of the Deputy or the Officer to defend each other or themselves from violent attack.”
Welfare Check
Gottula prompted a welfare check and a Thermopolis Police Department response to his home in the area of Clark and Third Streets on Sept. 9, when thrashing a metal baseball bat. He shared the home with his dad.
The neighbor saw him thrashing his home and surroundings while yelling and screaming, she told Cowboy State Daily hours after the incident.
The TPD officer who responded found Gottula outside the home with the bat. Using a loudspeaker, the officer told Gottula to put the bat down.
Gottula “became enraged at the Officer’s request and began charging toward the Officer’s vehicle raised bat in hand,” wrote LeBrun.
The officer “bumped” Gottula with his patrol vehicle, hoping to dislodge the bat from the man’s grasp, the letter says.
That didn’t work. Gottula kept the bat and kept attacking, angling himself toward the officer’s driver’s side door. The officer shifted into reverse and backed up, but Gottula opened the officer’s door and kept chasing the reversing vehicle, the letter says.
Gottula opened the officer’s door a second time; the officer shifted into drive and Gottula kept chasing the officer up the street, wrote LeBrun.
The sheriff’s deputy arrived on scene.
Some Space
The officer was able to drive away from Gottula, and he turned his vehicle around, then struck Gottula with his vehicle again.
A loud noise sounded.
“It is unclear if the noise was caused by Mr. Gottula’s bat striking the Officer’s vehicle,” wrote LeBrun.
Gottula was knocked to the ground but kept his bat. He regained his feet and kept advancing on the officer, who reversed his vehicle into an adjacent vacant lot, the letter says.
LeBrun said the officer shifted into a forward gear to try to strike Gottula again, but it’s unclear if he succeeded. The officer drove in a loop through the lot, turned the vehicle around, and knocked Gottula to the ground with it once again.
Gottula again got to his feet gripping the bat, then approached the deputy, who was on a small hillside giving rise to some railroad tracks behind the small neighborhood.
Gottula asked the deputy why law enforcement agents were there. The deputy said it was because Gottula was being a threat, says the letter.
“It is important to note that throughout the entire encounter,” wrote LeBrun, “law enforcement and citizen witnesses hollered on numerous occasions pleading with Mr. Gottula to drop the bat.”
Gottula walked down the train track berm, bat in hand, toward the officer’s vehicle, swinging the bat upward to rest on his shoulder. This gesture coupled with his stride gave the impression he was trying to intimidate the deputy, the letter says.
Someone yelled a warning to Gottula that he could get shot. He retorted that he has guns also, LeBrun wrote.
The Tasing That Didn’t Work
The officer drew his taser and walked around the back of his vehicle.
LeBrun wrote that Gottula raised the bat as if to hit him, and leaped toward the officer, who dodged out of the way and discharged his taser.
Gottula appeared unfazed by the taser, says the letter.
“Mr. Gottula then made a sound that may be described as a guttural battle scream, unclear if driven by bravado or irrationality but nevertheless terrifying,” wrote LeBrun.
Gottula turned toward the deputy and approached him, as the deputy “briefly retreated.” Gottula raised the bat in his right hand, and the deputy started firing his gun at the man, says the letter.
This shooting “was reasonable,” wrote LeBrun.
The prosecutor harkened to Wyoming’s grant of immunity for anyone who uses deadly force in response to a reasonable perception of the imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death to himself or others.
“A metal baseball bat is a weapon capable of causing death or great bodily injury,” LeBrun wrote. “Mr. Gottula had given every indication of his intention to use the bat violently.”
His behavior indicated he wanted both agents to believe he was going to hurt them, the letter adds.
The Thermopolis Police Department officer noticed Gottula charging the deputy, and it looked to him like the deputy’s rounds weren’t stopping the man, wrote LeBrun.
The officer would later describe Gottula as seeming “unstoppable,” as if in a “bad dream,” the letter says.
The officer drew his gun and also fired at Gottula.
At Least 20 Shots
Both agents together shot more than 20 rounds at Gottula. The deputy also fired several times after Gottula was already on the ground.
That doesn’t change LeBrun’s decision not to charge them criminally, he wrote.
“The Deputy fired his weapon very rapidly which is common in traumatic life or death self-defense shootings,” the prosecutor’s letter says. “That the Deputy’s very personal trauma experience caused him brief delay in recognizing the threat to his life had probably ended, does not convert this into a criminal matter.”
Both agents, wrote the prosecutor, “acted reasonably” under Wyoming’s self-defense law.
“No criminal charges will be filed,” LeBrun concluded.
The Thermopolis Police Department has reinstated its officer to full duty, it announced in a Friday statement.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
