Strange and sad news out of Idaho. A well-known cattle rancher was killed yesterday after an altercation with law enforcement devolved into a gun battle along US 95. It began after a couple, driving a Subaru, hit a black bull along the highway. First responders were trying to extricate the couple from the crashed car. Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman explained to
KTVB news what happened next.
"The bull was very agitated and was aggressive to emergency services, as well as the other cars coming up and down the highway," he said.
Deputies were getting ready to put the animal down when the bull's owner, 62-year-old Jack Yantis, arrived on the scene with a rifle. Zollman said dispatchers had called Yantis after the crash, telling him that the bull that was hit appeared to be his, and was down on the highway near his house.
There has been scant information as to what followed but according to Zollman the deputies and Yantis fired their weapons. In the ensuing gunfight,
Yantis was killed.
"To the best of my knowledge, this is the first officer-involved shooting that Adams County has ever had," Zollman said. "This is going to be a big hit to this community. The gentleman involved, Mr. Yantis, was a well-known cattle rancher around here. It's just a sad deal for everybody involved, for the whole community."
According
KTVB, Yantis' death has led to even more tragedy.
Yantis' wife, Donna Yantis, suffered a heart attack after learning that her husband had been shot, family members said. She was taken to a Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, where she was listed in critical condition Monday.
Both people inside the Subaru were taken to a Boise hospital by air ambulance. Their conditions are unknown. The bull was killed, although authorities are still investigating whether a bullet from Yantis' gun or one of the deputies' weapons killed the animal.
You can watch the television report and interview below the fold. Sheriff Zollman is clearly emotional about this tragic turn of events.