Deputy cleared in man’s death

A deputy’s fatal shooting of a man rushing police with a knife was declared justified Monday by Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas.

The prosecutor reviewed videotapes of the June 18 shooting, autopsy reports and a report compiled by investigators from the Idaho State Police.

An ISP review concluded Frank Saucedo Jr. was drunk when he charged officers on a dark street in Rathdrum, shouting statements about Satan and waving a serrated fisherman’s knife. Saucedo was shot and killed by Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy Justin Bangs while rushing a second deputy with the knife.

Deputy Art Dollard fired three beanbag rounds – designed to knock a person down or at least knock the wind out of him – at the sprinting Saucedo in the early morning hours of June 18. All three rounds, fired from a shotgun, hit Saucedo but did not stop the 33-year-old’s charge, police reports say.

After the third beanbag had been fired, Bangs, acting as cover man for Dollard, fired two shots from a .223-caliber rifle, killing Saucedo.

“Basically, the cover officer knew there were only three nonlethal rounds in the shotgun,” Idaho State Police Capt. Clark Rollins said Monday. After Dollard had fired for the third time, Bangs fired the first of his shots almost instantly, two different reviews of the incident have concluded.

“He knew his officer was vulnerable,” said Rollins, whose Coeur d’Alene-based investigators’ division handled the official review for the prosecutor’s office. Sheriff’s detectives compiled an internal review.

In his statement of findings, Douglas wrote that Bangs was acting to protect the safety of Dollard and other officers when he fired. Saucedo, Douglas wrote, “inflicted harm to himself with the knife, expressed that he was going to kill someone before the night was over, and that he was going to kill himself.”

Two Rathdrum police officers encountered Saucedo shortly after 1 a.m. on June 18, pacing and agitated in front of a duplex where a woman he had briefly dated ended their relationship just the day before. Saucedo, police reports and witness statements say, slashed himself in the stomach and arm with the knife. The Rathdrum officers backed away to give Saucedo room to calm down and called the county for backup. Bangs and Dollard, both members of the SWAT team, arrived within four minutes, having already received clearance to use the beanbag rounds.

Sheriff Rocky Watson, citing the internal review as well as footage from four police car video cameras, said Saucedo ran at the officers from about 40 feet away, ignoring repeated commands to “Halt, drop the knife.”

“He ran as fast as he could run,” Watson said last week. After the first beanbag hit him in the stomach, Saucedo squirmed so only his shoulder was aimed at Dollard. “He leaned into the pain and he kept going right through it,” the sheriff said. Saucedo was only about eight feet from a retreating Dollard after the third beanbag round was fired.

Lab results returned late last week showed Saucedo had a blood-alcohol level of .14 to .16, almost double the legal driving limit of .08, Rollins said. There were no traces found of any other drug.

Both deputies have returned to duty. Saucedo had told friends that his father died recently and that his mother was homeless. Police said both parents are alive, neither is homeless and both were shocked by Saucedo’s actions and death.

“The family is a victim in this as well as these officers,” Rollins said. “This is a tragic situation for all concerned. We are all raised ‘thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not kill,’ and when forced into that situation it is gut-wrenching for an officer.”