Randall Ellenwood
Monday evening, around 5:30 P.M., Randall Vernon Ellenwood and Ricardo Daniel Rodriguez were shot by an Idaho State trooper after a reported traffic violation, chase and “confrontation”. Ellenwood died at the scene and Rodriguez remains in critical condition at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. As both men were Nez Perce Tribal members and the incident occurred on the Nez Perce Reservation, The FBI was called in as lead investigative agency. All this we know from reports by KLEW-TV, The Lewiston Tribune, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Spokane’s KREM-TV, whose exclusive interview with a witness gives more detailed information, and the only info that is not the official FBI line. I know a little more, because my wife Leslie is a close friend of Vern’s wife Arleen Henry and was called to her side not long after the shooting. They waited for the agents to process the scene until about 3:45 A.M., when the body was finally released.
This is an opportunity for the Agency to generate a full and independent investigation and report of the shooting. Nobody knows better than FBI how hostilities can escalate after incidents like this, and the community not only will demand, but will deserve, a complete accounting.
At least three questions will have to be answered. First: were the suspects armed? Everyone who knows Vern and Arleen (whose pickup Vern was driving), as well as every witness, already knows the answer to this one. Second: Why was the ISP trooper unaccompanied by Tribal police? This was, as I understand it, their jurisdiction. I believe this was also the subject of the dispute between the men and the trooper. Third: whether or not Vern broke the law (which is entirely separate from this discussion), did either of these slightly-built and unarmed men ever pose a real threat to the life of the trooper, such that he was justified in using deadly force? Was Vern just guilty of DWI (Driving While Indian)? These are questions (except, of course, the first one, to which everyone knows the answer) which I assure you are being asked all over The Rez, and which, if they are not answered truthfully, completely and respectfully, will eventually fester, eroding even further the relations between the Indian and white communities, not to mention between the Indians and law enforcement agencies.
This is a reservation, where everyone pretty much knows everyone else. They know things about each other that they often would probably rather not. They also know when they are not getting the whole story. I urgently recommend to Special Agent Juan Becerra that he make very sure, and with as little delay as possible, that they–that we all–get the whole, unvarnished, un-spun, absolutely unedited story. Because memories can be long about these things. Because everybody has a lot more to lose if you are not completely up front with us. Because, God damn it, we deserve better.