by Travis Mateer
When I watched my first Coroner’s Inquest–or, what I like to call the state-sanctioned execution of Johnny Lee Perry–Justin White was the law man who devised the strategy that led to Johnny being shot in the back and bleeding out in the woods south of town. I know this because I watched the body-cam footage that featured White explaining his fear that tweakers with guns COULD BE waiting to ambush law enforcement inside one of the tweaker trailers, so if Johnny made a move toward one of those trailers, the men with badges and guns were told by White that they could use lethal rounds, which they did.
Before we get to another person shot dead by law enforcement (this time by Justin White directly) I’d like to remind readers how much our Missoula County Sheriff’s Office enjoys playing cop for the cameras. This is one reason I pondered whether or not Montana Republicans should be considered the party of reality tv.
There’s Justin White, on the right, and I suspect he’s grinning because he knows no badge in Montana WILL EVER be held accountable for unnecessarily killing someone. I say that because I’ve watched multiple Coroner’s Inquests now and the ENTIRE PROCESS is a joke, including the impossibly high standard prosecutors must meet in order to do what will never be done, and that’s find a member of law enforcement guilty of criminal intent.
All law enforcement has to do is say they were AFRAID and POOF, a questionable “officer-involved shooting” becomes justified. For Justin White, the fear appears to be the possibility of ambush. He said that on the stand in the Johnny Lee Perry case, and he said it recently, as reported by the Missoulian (emphasis mine):
After a day-long coroner’s inquest, a jury found that Sgt. Justin White, with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, was justified in shooting and killing Couts during a brief but intense nighttime standoff. Body camera footage showed White firing a single shot that struck Couts in the head while Couts was laying in a truck bed several feet away.
“I’m stuck in this constant hope that he’s going to drop the gun,” White testified. “We can hope all we want, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
White, an assistant SWAT team leader with 12 years at the sheriff’s office, testified that he believed Couts was preparing to “ambush” officers in order to escape. He and other officers said Couts refused to drop the gun, although the available body camera footage didn’t appear to clearly show whether he was still holding it.
The jury was shown body camera footage from two officers present at the shooting. White’s body camera was not turned on, he said, because it is activated by his patrol vehicle dash cam, which was in the shop. Another officer said he had turned off his body camera when he thought the chase had ended.
Does it seem a little suspicious that Justin White didn’t have his body camera turned on? Yeah, I think it is, but that’s just because I’ve been tracking the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office FOR YEARS, questioning their tactics and the lethal results.
Above are the two men who deserve the most credit for a Sheriff’s Office that sucks at investigating murders, and sucks and not killing individuals who make them SO SCARED they have to put a bullet in the head of a man claiming to be suicidal.
Or was he suicidal? Justin White didn’t think so, he said from the stand.
Before he was shot, Couts could be heard on the two officers’ body camera recordings saying “I’m suicidal,” after White yelled repeatedly, “Put the gun down now or you will be shot.”
“Suicidal people don’t run and hide from the cops with a gun,” White testified. “Suicidal people I’ve dealt with are emotional. They’re screaming, they’re yelling, they’re upset. He was able to have a completely clear conversation.”
White and several other officers called to the stand stated they believed their lives and the lives of people in the densely populated neighborhood were at risk.
“At that point, I knew I had to act instead of react,” he told the jury.
Is Justin White a mental health professional? No, I don’t think he is, but it doesn’t matter. The Missoula County Attorney’s Office knows this entire process is merely performative, so they just go through the motions. I’ve seen how this particular sausage is made, and it’s fucking disgusting.
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Thanks for reading!