More details emerge in officer-involved shooting
SANDPOINT — The events leading up to the officer-involved shooting death of Jeanetta Riley are becoming clearer with the release of hundreds of pages of documents.
The documents, obtained by The Daily Bee under Idaho’s public records law, paint a fairly desperate picture of a woman struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues and a husband unsure of how to get her immediate help.
Shane and Jeanetta Riley were homeless and staying at a campground on Shepherd Lake in Sagle, according to a sheriff investigator’s report. They had been drinking when Shane Riley informed his wife of his plan to leave her so he could go into recovery.
Jeanetta Riley, 35, made bleak statements about not making it through the night and was heard breaking apart a disposable razor to extract the blade. Shane Riley told Det. Barry Reinink that he decided to take her into Sandpoint in search of help.
Shane Riley said he wasn’t sure where to take her, but the couple knew something was going to take place.
“We both know something’s going to happen,” Shane Riley told the detective.
Jeanetta Riley asked where she was being taken and vowed to stab anybody who tried to help her, including the police, according to a transcript of the interview.
“I’m stabbing them all,” Shane Riley quoted his wife saying. Jeanetta had taken up a fillet knife as Shane drove her to town.
Shane Riley ultimately drove to Bonner General Health and advised a receptionist that his wife was outside with a knife “talking all kinds of crazy shit” and to call 911.
Sandpoint Police officers were immediately dispatched to the hospital and within seconds of their arrival Jeanetta Riley was shot and killed after she refused commands to drop the knife and allegedly advanced on officers.
Video footage of the deadly encounter shows officers Michael Valenzuela and Skylar Ziegler reacting to a movement by Jeanetta Riley by lurching backward, but that movement was not within the view of the camera.
Jeanetta Riley can be heard on the video cursing at officers and saying, “Bring it on!”
The officers have been cleared of wrongdoing by Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh, although some in the community take issue with that finding.
Five shots were fired during the confrontation, three of which came from Valenzuela’s AR-15 rifle and two of which came from Ziegler’s .40-caliber Glock pistol.
Valenzuela opened fire first, firing two rounds, according to investigative materials. As Jeanetta Riley fell forward, Valenzuela fired a third round and Ziegler fired two shots.
An autopsy determined that one of Valenzuela’s .223-caliber shots entered her chest and hit her in the liver and the other hit her shoulder. One of Ziegler’s shots hit Riley in the back and struck her heart, the sheriff’s report said.
Investigators determined one of the gunshots struck an exterior wall of the hospital, but did not penetrate into an emergency room on the other side of the wall, the sheriff’s report said.
The autopsy further revealed that Jeanetta Riley’s blood alcohol content was 0.33, which is more than four times the legal limit of 0.08. Methamphetamine was also found in her system and six syringes were found under the passenger seat of her van. One syringes appeared to have been used, according to the sheriff’s report.
The autopsy also concluded that Riley was pregnant, but the sheriff’s report does not indicate how far along she was.