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

Police officers cleared in fatal shooting in Boise

Associated Press

BOISE – Two Boise police officers did not commit any wrongdoing following a shooting during a traffic stop that killed a man armed with a gun, a prosecutor’s review found.

Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas on Friday cleared officers Adam Crist and Kepa Zubizarreta.

Authorities said both officers fired one shot during a Jan. 4 traffic stop of Robert Cassidy Hansen. The 27-year-old died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head.

Police said Hansen was sitting in the back seat and refused police commands, pointing the gun at himself and the female driver. The shooting was recorded by body cameras worn by officers.

“The use of deadly force in response to the threat posed by Robert Hansen was objectively reasonable under the circumstances,” the Blaine County prosecutor’s office said.

Police said the officers believed the woman was in danger and nearly simultaneously shot at Hansen. The woman wasn’t injured.

Hansen had previously lived in Twin Falls. He’d been in and out of jail much of his adult life. His sister, Cori Hansen of Twin Falls, has previously said she considered her brother’s death a suicide.

“If he had a choice – and obviously he did – that was the way he wanted to go,” she said not long after the shooting.

Besides outside agencies that investigated the shooting, the Boise Police Department conducted its own internal investigation and determined that the “officers acted within training and policy while defending innocent civilians and other officers.”