“Ok everyone for now here is part 2 and a GoFundMe page that we really need help with along with pressure on the legal system to get justice and these officers charged,” Jason Kloepfer wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post. “We have not been home for one night since this happened and will not be for multiple reasons. The biggest one is fear of being murdered. The cost of living has been very high and on top of that paying our normal bills. Please share all of this as far and wide as possible.”
That’s exactly what AmmoLand Shooting Sports News has been doing since its initial exclusive post in January presenting the original video of the Cherokee Indian Police opening fire on the unarmed man answering their demands to come out of his trailer while his hands were in the air, and highlighting the resulting inconsistencies from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department as it pointed fingers in its own Facebook post, denying responsibility, and flat-out spreading a narrative that has since proven to be false. (Angry and disbelieving reader reaction has since resulted in the department limiting who can comment on its posts, that is, the government agency is censoring citizens.)
That report was followed up by two in February, the first documenting lack of media coverage and presenting key questions left unanswered in the sheriff’s attempts to absolve himself and his department of any responsibility for events he set in motion resulting in an unarmed and non-belligerent citizen and his wife being subjected to a barrage of gunfire, and the second posting a time-lined transcript of the Calls for Service Report and Dispatch Recording, and highlighting the dangers of SWATting based on unproven allegations.
The new video Kloepfer referred to in his Facebook post is embedded below for viewing. In it, we see from the time stamp that it was taken from the same camera as the first video and it took place almost seven hours after the events of the shooting.
The officers in the video are with the State Bureau of Investigation. Their bemused conduct and questions are hardly suggestive of crack “CSI” types.
“They shoot at him and they went and got a warrant?” one officer asks. It sounds like another responds with a breathy laugh.
The video then presents selected areas of a subpoena presented by Kloepfer’s attorney to the neighbor who initially called in the complaint resulting in the SWAT raid, demanding that she appear and testify and produce texts between herself and the deputies and “any and all videos” she told dispatchers she had recorded in her complaint call.
We then learn that on March 1, the District Attorney filed for the dismissal of both charges against Kloepfer. This was confirmed in a March 2 report by ABC 13 News. Bear in mind that the dismissal document shown in the video is marked “At the request of the prosecuting witness.” This is after she’d dialed 911 accusing him of firing “at least 10 shots” and reporting he had made death threats against neighbors and any police who might respond. And she’d indicated to the 911 dispatcher that she’d “already sent them” to other officers via text messaging.
The video ends with the investigators removing the camera that recorded the video and voices indicating it was on “the cloud” and that they had Kloepfer’s phone. That makes it fair to wonder not only why the sheriff stated he was unaware of the video until January 18, but also, if SBI first accessed it before it went public and made viral by citizen activists.
It also brings up fair questions about just how impartial any investigation can be without full disclosure of relationships between all parties involved in Klopefer’s shooting and subsequent actions. That’s compounded by a new development reported Wednesday by Smoky Mountain News:
“DA recuses herself from police shooting case.”
She cites a conflict of interest by now being a witness in a case “involv[ing] potential crimes committed by a government official.” We further learn that County Attorney Darrell Brown, whom Sheriff Dustin Smith blamed for the publicity release he cited in his Facebook post, resigned after that.
Left unexplored at this writing are public disclosures for other potential conflicts of interest:
How did the witness have phone numbers for two officers to text them? Were they provided after the 911 call or does she have any kind of prior personal or professional relationship with either?
What personal relationships exist between members of the Sheriff’s Department and/or members of the Cherokee Indian Police SWAT unit and members of the State Bureau of Investigation that might compromise their objectivity or present the appearance of impropriety?
For his part, friends of Kloepfer have started a GoFundMe page, because, in fear for their lives the couple has been forced to relocate. The purpose is “to help them get by with housing, medical bills, etc. Jason is a disabled man and is unable to work which is why they need help.”
As for resolving the questions raised above, it remains to be seen if a fair, objective, and transparent investigation can happen without all interests and potential conflicts being on the table. Adding to the difficulty of ensuring that is the fact that not one major national “legacy” media outlet has seen fit to notice the story, let alone use their considerable resources to investigate and inform the public.
That no doubt is a factor in why the one outstanding question presented at the end of the new video remains unanswered:
“As of March 26, 2023, no law enforcement officers involved in the firing squad at 5 A.M. on December 13, 2022, have been criminally charged. Why not?”
Afterword
The Kloepfer story contains several takeaways for all citizens to consider when firearms prohibitionists talk about “red flag laws” based on accusations, confiscation raids, and police being the “Only Ones” with guns. Hopefully, gun owners who see how outrageous situations can and do develop from these will keep it in mind when arguments against their rights are raised. And hopefully, some who are reading this will be concerned enough about it to contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and remind them that just because major media isn’t watching them to ensure justice doesn’t mean enough of us aren’t.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
have been following this since this happened. it is a fubar situation that the only remedy is to have the state IG conduct an investigation into the gross negligence of the leo’s and prosecute a good many of them for attempted murder, including the caller who it seems like lied to the dispatcher and initiated this crime. she must surely hate the kloepfers. it would be interesting how many times in the past she has called on them. police agencies have become para-military organizations, borderline gangs who often do not adhere to the law as we are required to do.… Read more »
You make some good and valid points. On the writing composition side, it would make reading your posts a whole lot easier if you would take the time to CAPITALIZE the first letter of your sentences. Without them, It’s hard to pick up where a new thought starts and also has the appearance of rambling. My opinion.
I’m not going to complain about sentence structure, I belong to enough Forums to know there are one or two lying in wait in the ether waiting to correct us. Sometimes it’s valid other times I find it to be a form of virtue signaling. You post here enough to know, that most of the time this program fails to enact the capitalization after a period or a start of a new paragraph. I have found myself, especially early morning sitting on my porcelain LazyBoy reading and pontificating on stories from Ammoland, I fail to capitalize a word or two… Read more »
Did you understand what he wrote? I think you do, so SHUT UP Karen!
My dear Numbnuts, Considering the current state of affairs in public education, ie, the fact that the majority of high school seniors for the last decade, cannot accurately spell, do not know the history of their own country, and cannot diagram a sentence, lends to the validity of the gentleman’s points. He is not being a Karen for asking that the man properly write the sentences, so they are much easier to follow the context of what the gentleman wishes to say, and for us to understand it. You may now return to scratching your nut sack, and drinking your… Read more »
Hey I know you, your the one that stuck his head out the window, and got arrested for mooning!
Yep, just like that gal down the street who wore provocative clothing that deserved the sexual assault she got. SMFH!!!
“including the caller who it seems like lied to the dispatcher and initiated this crime.”
Well, who knows? Maybe Kloepfer WAS shooting out his back door and revving his motorcycle. Not that any of that excuses the way-out-of-line police response that resulted.
In the police state we find ourselves living in, the police are not our friends.
Agreed, can this be fixed? I find most people I talk to suffer from the same cognitive dissonance concerning their police departments as they do their children’s public indoctrinator. They claim the schools and police are bad except my…. When if fact, their teachers are union members that vote in lockstep with the teachers union well over 97% and their police have the same affiliations. The only difference I see, in this state, are the elected Sheriffs. 38 out of the 39 county sheriffs are elected, it makes a big difference. Only King County, home to Seattle, have an electorate… Read more »
It can, and will be, fixed. But only after we, as a society, achieve stage 3 of Alexander Tyler’s stages of civilization, enough courage to enforce liberty. Until then we will remain mired in stage 2, gathering enough spiritual courage to act.
Good points Bob. Can it be fixed? Not for many years. With all the retirements and resignations as a result of the defund movement there are many vacancies. The candidates for those vacancies will not be folks we want to be police. Good candidates will seek employment in a less hostile work place. Another major factor is holding police accountable when they violate the Rights, bully, and abuse their fellow citizens. Negligent retention must end. Qualified immunity is both a benefit and a bane. Immunity should only apply to reasonable miscalculations. Too often it is abused to protect members of… Read more »
“To Protect And Serve”………for the government.
….and themselves.
A fine line divides Leo’s from being criminals and many cross that line while wearing a badge and taking a oath to serve and protect . Many Leo’s think this means too serve themselves and protect themselves from prosecution for thier crimes .
This is why Qualified Immunity should be repealed.It emboldens the lawless cops. It should be taken on a case by case basis.
Sounds like that “Karen”is a COP. Wannabe or, she has some experience with LE. She tells the dispatcher to have the Deputy’s to go “Digital” so he won’t be able to listen to them.
Most people don’t understand things like that. I do, because I’m an Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator!
I have been a ham since 1972, but stopped at General class. I understand what you mean about digital, although don’t know if it really makes much difference here. Cops seem to just live in a bubble sometimes. The one factor that I have noticed is that when recruiting from former military personnel, they often have a harder time training out the rules of engagement that the military has and ingraining the rules of engagement that civilian LEO’s are forced to use. I.E., the military is used to just shooting a problem, while law enforcement has to be more concerned… Read more »
You are giving them more benefit of doubt than they deserve. Those gangsters masquerading as Tribal Cops, went there to kill, the latest texts between the criminals and prosecution informant make it perfectly clear what their intentions were. It used to be in this state, not sure if the policy is the same since we gave the tribes money trees, that if the tribal cops were going to arrest someone on a felony or a SWAT action, they didn’t go alone, they either go with a county sheriff, a federal cop or a group of them all. Tribal cops have… Read more »
Excellent work as always Mr Correa.
“and that they had Kloepfer’s phone”
I don’t think so. What I hear is:
“This is a cloud system, I bet.”
“I bet it’s on his phone.”
Why did they feel the need to take down his camera? Maybe to hide something? Too little, too late, we already have the original shooters on camera discovering he has THEM on camera and them reacting with “OH SHIT!” Talk about “smoking gun” as far as evidence of wrongdoing.
Might have been a good idea to run the original article from January, so this would make more sense.
The portions of any sentence in this article, highlighted in red, are direct links to other articles or referenced information. If you haven’t done so, I would recommend going back and clicking the references to the January and February articles. Well worth it. It should get your blood pressure up.