Another Barney Fife, only this time someone died

A rookie deputy sheriff in Richardson County, Nebraska named Todd Landis gets a "confidential tip" from an informant that a woman is going to buy some prescription pain medicine from a nursing home resident. Instead of notifying the department's narcotics unit, the deputy, with apparently no buy-bust training, decides to make the arrest himself. He hides in the bushes outside of the nursing home. When the woman pulls up and the nursing home resident approaches the car, Deputy Landis rushes the car window with his service weapon drawn. The gun "accidentally" discharges, hitting the woman in the head. She dies from the injury.

Law enforcement officials do not give the woman's family any information on what happened, and a district judge places a gag order on the case, which is odd since no grand jury had been convened at that point, so there is really nothing to gag. It gets to the point where local elected officials and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning start to complain about the coverup.

Incredibly, a grand jury declines to indict the officer in the incident. Meanwhile, the officer is arrested while riding a motocycle for DUI and refusing to take a chemical test.


I don't know how a grand jury could possibly not find at least gross negligence in this case. A woman buying some pills from a sick old person is not a situation where a cop needs to rush up with his gun drawn, in a "felony stop" situation. Why couldn't they just wait 5 minutes and then perform a traffic stop? What was the all-fired rush, unless Todd "Barney Fife" Landis wanted to swoop in and be a "hero"? Firearms do not go off "accidentally", either, they go off when someone pulls the trigger, so there is yet more negligence. Landis obviously practiced poor technique by having his finger on the trigger, so he should be responsible for the results.

I don't like drug dealers and people who use illegal drugs, and I want the police to enforce the law. I also understand that it's easy to second-guess decisions, especially given that I have no law-enforcement training. I fail, however, to see the need for SWAT-style tactics on a middle-aged woman who is buying some methadone from a nursing home resident. I hope the lady's family ends up owning all of the assets of this county.

People of Richardson County, be careful. You've got some real "loose cannons" running around. You'd better not do anything that appears the least bit suspicious, lest you get a gun pointed at your head.