Video of deadly shooting emerges

SANDPOINT — Startling video footage emerged Wednesday of an officer-involved shooting which wounded two Sandpoint Police officers and claimed the life of a Sandpoint man who opened fire on them.

The city released a brief clip of video captured by an officer’s body-worn camera of the moments leading up the fatal clash at the door of an apartment in the 900 block of Ridley Village Road shortly after 3 a.m. on March 5. The video shows officers Eric Clark and Mike Hutter being beckoned into the apartment by William Crawford, who called 911 requesting a welfare check on his grandson, Brandon Theodore Kuhlman.

Clark immediately noticed that Crawford was openly carrying a holstered pistol on his belt, prompting the officer to secure the firearm.

“It is contemporaneous to that — and it’s a little bit hard to see in the video. We slowed it down frame-by-frame — you can see the gunshot come from deep inside that apartment,” said Capt. Mark Hagar of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, which headed up the investigation into the shooting.

The gunshots fired by Kuhlman came without warning or provocation. The only visible indication of the threat in the video is the crack of gunfire and split-second muzzle flashes from Kuhlman’s pistol in the background.

Clark and Hutter returned fire and retreated to cover outside the apartment. Hutter was struck in the chest and thigh, while Clark was struck in the neck and hand by the incoming rounds. Kuhlman would be found dead later that morning, having suffered three gunshot wounds in the exchange of gunfire.

“Within 27 seconds of their arrival on the scene, the shooting was over. The shooting itself took about 12 seconds, so this is a rapidly evolving situation,” Hagar said.

Hagar said the release of the video was not meant to be dramatic or sensational.

“We wanted the community to be able to see what the officers dealt with at the time there and that their actions were appropriate under the law, under policy and to protect themselves,” Hagar said.

The city’s Wednesday press conference follows a determination by special prosecutor Barry McHugh that neither Clark nor Hutter engaged in wrongdoing during the incident.

“Mr. Kuhlman was inside and started firing at the officers without warning or provocation,” Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh said in a May 29 letter to the investigative task force.

Hagar said the officers’ efforts to protect other apartment complex residents, guarding against additional avenues of potential attack and rendering of first aid to one another was commendable given the stress of the situation.

“Their actions to provide self-first aid and buddy care were exemplary,” said Hagar.

Hutter has returned to duty, while Clark remains on light duty while awaiting additional surgery on his injured hand, according to Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon. Coon said it has been an honor to serve alongside Hutter and Clark and praised the officers’ willingness to continue to serve the residents of Sandpoint and its visitors.

“In this event, there were some shining moments,” Coon said, referring to the cooperation between area law enforcement agencies and the community at large, which has rallied behind the injured officers.

“Our community as a whole was outstanding during this event,” Coon said.

Hutter acknowledged the second-guessing that can transpire after an officer-involved shooting occurs, but said it was a clear-cut case of self-defense in which training overrode contemplation. Hutter added that officer-involved shootings are rare but not unheard of even in places such as Sandpoint.

“You just never know. That’s just it. On any particular day anything can happen and that’s law enforcement,” Hutter said. “You just don’t know what’s going to take place.”

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.