Thursday, November 12, 2015

Town Hall meeting addresses shooting death of Council rancher - video

COUNCIL, Idaho - It has been over a week since the shooting death of rancher Jack Yantis. Tuesday night marked the first public address for Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who is in the middle of a firestorm in Adams County. More than 200 people turned out in Council for a town hall meeting conducted by Zollman, as he hoped to begin the healing process in this small town. Reporters were allowed to attend the community meeting, but not to record audio or video. Zollman said he held the meeting to stand in front of the community and show them he is committed to finding the truth about what happened. He also said he wanted to share what he could about the timeline and the process going forward. Zollman made a short statement to start, saying the case has been taken over by the Attorney General's Office, but that the investigation remains in the hands of Idaho State Police. He told the group gathered he had no new information to share about the investigation, and urged patience as the investigation continues. "This is going to be a long, drawn-out process," he said. "It's been over a week now. The community's got a lot of questions, a lot of concerns. They don't know what's going on." Lots of questions from citizens Tuesday night focuses on whether video evidence of what happened had been captured of dash and body cameras? The sheriff said that because dash and body cams were turned over to ISP immediately, he never had a chance to look at them and doesn't know if they were turned on during the confrontation. The meeting was contentious at times, but some residents also applauded the sheriff and his promise to find the truth. Zollman told the crowd once a report is released he will share it with residents first and then with the media. Sarah Yantis, Jack's daughter, was emotional after the nearly one-hour meeting. She told KTVB the sheriff didn't answer any questions. "I found him to be evasive [and] contradictory, and in the end I just asked him to look me in the eye when he lied to us," she said. Others in the community also expressed dissatisfaction with the sheriff's answers. "We really didn't find anything out," Council resident Don Mello said after the meeting...more

Here's the KTVB video report:

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