Jake Gardner, a 38-year-old war veteran indicted for the shooting death of 22-year-old James Scurlock, has taken his own life by suicide. A grand jury in Omaha, Nebraska, charged Gardner with manslaughter, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, attempted first-degree assault, and terroristic threats. He left Omaha for Portland, Oregon, with plans to return to face indictment charges but he committed suicide on the day he was supposed to face charges.
The Hillsboro Police Department in Oregon said they found Gardner’s body outside a medical facility at Southeast Ninth Avenue after responding to a call. Stu Dornan, Gardner’s attorney announced his client’s death to news reporters on the instructions of his bereaved family.
Dornan stated that Gardner was a decorated war veteran, having served in Iraq and Haiti among other places. He said Gardner had suffered two traumatic brain injuries and felt he was experiencing a war situation the night he shot and killed Scurlock. The attorney insisted that his client acted in self-defense by fatally shooting Scurlock.
It happened that on May 30, Gardner with his father was inside their Hive Bar business in the Old Market when demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis flooded the streets opposite their bar. According to Dornan, a pole from protesters shattered the glass in their bar and Gardner thought it was a bullet from a gunshot. He quickly grabbed a handgun and followed his dad outside. About two protesters descended on his father and Gardner fired a warning shot that killed Scurlock.
The Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine believed that Gardner acted in self-defense and would not file a charge, but a grand jury requested to examine the case and eventually indicted him. The indictment and subsequent death threats from people scared Gardner, according to Dornan, so he went to California and then went to Portland because of the wildfires in California. He planned to return to Omaha but ended up taking his own life because he feared people would kill him if he returned.
“The grand jury indictment was a shock to him,” Tom Gardner, Dornan’s colleague said. “He was really shaken up. Jake was worried he was going to get shot on the way here, that some of those folks would give him death threats…would carry through with them.”
Source: cnn.com
