Rambo recalls July 4 shooting

▶️ Listen to this article now.

COEUR d’ALENE — Tyler Rambo remembers the moment when the first bullet hit him the night of July 4, 2019.

He was falling backward, he said, after Coeur d’Alene police had shot him with a Taser in City Park. The bullet struck his left arm, which he said was in front of him, across his body.

“The first bullet that hits you is not something you forget,” he said in court Tuesday. “It felt like someone stabbed me with a hot poker.”

Rambo testified in court for the second time this week. He is charged with second degree attempted murder and aggravated assault.

The charges stem from the Fourth of July celebration in 2019, when police said Rambo, who was 18 at the time, attempted to shoot another man during a physical fight in City Park.

Police pursued Rambo through the park when he ran from the scene. Officers accused Rambo of firing at them before they shot him 14 times.

Rambo lost both legs as a result of the shooting.

In testimony Tuesday, private investigator Chris Sullivan said he spoke on the phone with Jazmin Smith, a Spokane resident who said Rambo pointed a gun at her that night.

“She told me twice that she was pretty buzzed,” Sullivan said. “She was so drunk her friends had to wake her up when it was time to leave.”

Smith said in court last week that she was “tipsy” during the altercation.

Sullivan said Smith told him twice that Rambo fired the gun into the air.

Last week, Smith testified that Rambo waved the gun in her face before it went off. Rambo was standing when she saw the gun, she said, and she hit his arm.

“I believe (the gun) did fire when I hit his arm,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s what happened.”

Rambo denied pointing a gun at Smith. Other witnesses testified that the gun went off just once, while Rambo was on the ground.

After the altercation near Independence Point, where some witnesses said they saw multiple people kicking and punching Rambo while he was on the ground before the gun went off, Rambo bolted from the scene.

He said he was afraid the people he’d fought with were after him.

“It was pretty much survival mode at that point,” he said.

Rambo said his hearing was muffled from the first gunshot and people were screaming. He didn’t look back, he said, so he neither saw nor heard the police who were chasing him.

The gun was still in his hand. He said he noticed the hammer was cocked, though he said he didn’t know how it happened.

When he stopped running near the basketball courts, police officers surrounded him in a semicircle, shouting commands to drop the gun and get on the ground.

He raised both hands, he said, one of which still held the revolver.

“I wanted to make it very clear that I was not a threat,” he said.

Rambo, who reportedly had no formal gun safety training before the incident, said he was afraid the gun would discharge if he dropped it while the hammer was cocked.

“If I had dropped the gun and it went off and a bullet hit a kid — I wasn’t willing to risk it,” he said.

Rambo said he did not attempt to comply with commands to get on the ground. He said he was disoriented from being hit and kicked in the head during the fight at Independence Point.

“Getting to the ground did not cross my mind,” he said. “I will admit that.”

Instead, he said, he attempted to uncock the revolver with one hand.

That was when Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Casey Ziegler fired his Taser, Rambo said.

Tasers work by sending electrical pulses along two wires, which are attached to probes that become embedded in a target. Both probes must be within an inch of the body to complete a circuit.

Neuromuscular incapacitation occurs when a circuit is complete and electrical pulses from the probes stimulate muscles to contract uncontrollably.

When the Taser probes hit, Rambo said, his muscles seized up and he began to fall backward.

“I couldn’t control my body,” he said.

His thumb slipped off the hammer, he said, and the gun went off.

“I knew I was dead,” he said, recalling the moment before police returned fire.

Retired police officer Jerry Staton also testified Tuesday.

A senior master instructor for Taser, Staton helped create the training platform used by Taser instructors and end users. He has also taken part in multiple studies about Tasers, including a peer-reviewed research project about the effects that a Taser has on a person.

Staton said he reviewed body camera footage from July 4, 2019, as well as data downloaded from Ziegler’s Taser and other material.

Though he was paid for his time and expertise, Staton said that did not affect his testimony.

“You can pay for my time, but you can’t buy my opinion,” he said.

When fired, Taser probes spread about 1 foot for every 7 feet traveled. An optimal distance between probes is 12 inches or more, though Staton said it’s not an exact science. Bodies react differently to the shock.

Ziegler estimated he was between 10 and 15 feet away from Rambo when he fired the Taser, meaning the spread between probes was likely 12 to 16 inches.

Body camera footage and data from the Taser show that Rambo experienced “significant” neuromuscular incapacitation after he was shocked, Staton said.

He also said he believes it’s impossible to determine definitively whether Rambo fired intentionally or unintentionally.

“It’s just not a 100 percent situation,” he said, qualifying that he believes it is more likely that the gunshot was unintentional.

The shock or the fall alone could have caused the gun to fire, he said.

“Certainly both together could have caused (Rambo) to unintentionally discharge the weapon,” he said.

The defense and prosecution will present closing statements today.