Charges Not Expected In Shooting Death

No charges will be filed in the shooting death of a teenager who pointed a BB gun at a pizza driver, Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg has decided.

The pellet gun brandished by Juston Buller, 17, of Orting, resembled a .45-caliber handgun, and investigators believe he had stolen beer from a tavern and was threatening the 24-year-old delivery worker, Ladenburg said.

“It appears that the circumstances meet the legal definition of self-defense,” he said.

Buller was shot with a 9 mm pistol early in the morning of Aug. 31 after what his friends described as a celebration of the end of summer vacation.

Buller and three friends had climbed a 150-foot broadcast tower in Orting when two men arrived and a confrontation developed. The other teen-agers said the man who shot Buller threatened to kill them, too.

He should have to face a jury, said Annette Turley, whose nephew was one of the teenagers with Buller.

“That wasn’t self-defense,” she said. “We won’t leave it alone until they charge them.”