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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cop Won’t Be Charged For Shooting Assailants

Associated Press

Though some have called it a case of police brutality, charges will not be filed against an officer who fatally shot two men as he was dragged alongside their speeding car for nearly a mile.

“The law is clear that anyone being dragged almost a mile down the street at 71 miles an hour should have the right to protect themselves,” District Attorney Bob Colville said Thursday.

The announcement came after coroner Cyril Wecht recommended that Officer John Wilbur shouldn’t be prosecuted, despite a 4-2 vote from a coroner’s jury Wednesday that he be charged.

A coroner’s jury of citizens is seated in cases of suspicious deaths and its finding is only a recommendation.

Some have cited the case as an example of a white police officer brutalizing black suspects.

“The majority wants this man brought up on charges. Now it looks like that isn’t going to happen,” said a frustrated LeRoy Wofford, stepfather of Craig Guest, who died in the shooting.

Wilbur, 28, was investigating a report of a suspicious car in the city’s Shadyside neighborhood in June. He testified that he was leaning into a car to question the driver and two passengers when the car sped off, catching his left hand in the rear door.

As he was dragged, he shot into the back window of the car with his right hand until he was thrown free, Wilbur testified.

The officer’s wedding ring kept him from freeing himself, police said.

He later lost a toe and underwent surgery to repair a shattered ankle.

The passengers, Guest, 19, and Maurice Hall, 20, were killed.