Native Sun: Deputy reached for gun, not taser, in fatal shooting

Native Sun: Deputy reached for gun, not taser, in fatal shooting
Thursday, May 27, 2010
http://64.38.12.138/News/2010/019992.asp
This story was written by Randall Howell and is copyright Native Sun News.

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA -- The sheriff’s department deputy who fatally shot an Oglala Lakota man in a field near Rapid City was carrying a taser, but did not use it.

Instead he fired five fatal bullets into Christopher J. Capps, a 22-year-old college-bound student who lived in the same neighborhood where he died in a hail of bullets on May 2.

Despite the fact that his only weapon allegedly was a “sharp stick,” Capps was slain by Pennington County Sheriff’s Department deputy David Olson, who was temporarily suspended – a standard law enforcement practice during a shooting investigation.

Capps, the son of Jerry and Jaylene Capps, had lived with his family in the mobile home community for about a dozen years and had been accepted for enrollment at the University of South Dakota-Vermillion, where he had plans to study computer animation and biology, before his life was ended with up to five bullets from a “duty handgun” fired by Olson.
Related Stories from Native Sun, posted at http://www.indianz.com/
Native Sun: Police shooting of Oglala man ruled as 'justified' (5/19)
Native Sun: Oglala Sioux family sends son to the spirit world (5/13)
Native Sun News: Deputy shoots and kills Lakota man, 22 (5/6)