Idaho police shooting paralyzed a man. Was there a better way to handle the situation? | Opinion

The situation involving a family illegally camping on public lands in Idaho and ending in law enforcement officers shooting and paralyzing a man in a wheelchair is tragic and horrifying.

The federal and state undercover operation that led to the shooting was a clear case of overreaction that needs a thorough and independent review. How could this type of situation gotten to the point of a shootout that could have ended a lot worse?

It also highlights the need for increased services for Idahoans experiencing homelessness, another ongoing problem.

As reported by the Idaho Statesman’s Sally Krutzig, federal and state law enforcement officers conducted an operation in which undercover officers in plain clothes pretended to be campers with a broken-down vehicle needing a jump-start.

When one of the three suspects, Timber Roberts, 35, went to help, officers jumped him and threw him to the ground to arrest him. Timber called for help, apparently thinking he was being attacked and robbed.

When Timber’s brother Brooks, 39, responded in a wheelchair carrying a handgun, police turned on Brooks and shot him 11 times, leaving him paralyzed.

There had to be a better way to handle this.

Idaho purports to have strong gun rights and has strong stand-your-ground laws.

“No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting himself or his family by reasonable means necessary, or when coming to the aid of another whom he reasonably believes to be in imminent danger of or the victim of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, murder or other heinous crime,” according to Idaho state law.

When Brooks was responding to Timber’s cries for help, Brooks said he had no idea that the people attacking Timber were law enforcement officers. Brooks was merely doing what Idahoans are expected to do in such a situation — come to the aid of their family.

How could law enforcement agents not have seen this coming?

Brooks, lying paralyzed in a pool of his own blood, even apologized: “I’m sorry,” Brooks can be heard saying in police body camera footage. “I thought my brother was being attacked. You didn’t give me a chance to put the gun down. ... I didn’t know you guys were cops.”

It could have been even worse. Brooks could have — justifiably and legally — begun firing off rounds at the people attacking his brother. The situation easily could have turned into a bloodbath with multiple casualties.

Need for homelessness services

All for what?

Because a family — two of whom are disabled — had nowhere else to go and was living too long on public land. The Robertses were moving from one public campground to the next, but not frequently enough.

In addition to the fact that Brooks was already using a wheelchair because of a workplace injury, Brooks and Timber’s mother, Judy, 62, got frostbite in the winter of 2021-22, when her feet froze to the floor of an old school bus they were living in, and the bottoms of both of her legs had to be amputated.

We’re not going to canonize the family: U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management officials had been dealing with the Robertses for years, and things had escalated, with Timber reportedly impersonating a police officer and making threats, according to officials. And the family appeared to be infringing on the rights of others, taking public campsites and reportedly posing a danger to other campers.

But an elaborate ruse that ended in violence clearly was the wrong course of action here.

As the Robertses’ attorney Craig Durham pointed out, law enforcement could have contacted the family’s lawyers and required them to show up in court, at which point they could have taken everyone into custody in a much more controlled setting.

Attorneys for Brooks have filed a tort claim (a precursor to a lawsuit) against the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Agriculture — seeking $50 million for, among other things, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, and trauma.

If a lawsuit is successful or gets settled, whatever amount is awarded should be considered in the context of how much it would cost to provide services to people in similar situations — experiencing homelessness and having no viable alternatives.

Regardless, the cost of the undercover operation — involving a dozen agents — should be weighed against spending that same amount of money, time and effort on services to combat homelessness and resolve similar situations so that people like the Robertses don’t find themselves relying on camping on public lands to survive.

The FBI is investigating the shooting, which is a good thing. The inquiry needs to be thorough and independent. Not only should an investigation answer the question of whether there was any wrongdoing, but everyone should be seeking to answer an even more basic question:

Wasn’t there a better way to handle this entire situation?

This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 10:05 AM.