Billings Police justified in 2020 killing of Cole Stump, inquest jury finds

AJ Etherington 

Billings Gazette

Two sisters of a Rocky Boy man shot to death by police in Billings are unsatisfied with the findings of an inquest into their brother’s shooting.

Following a daylong coroner’s inquest, a Yellowstone County jury found Billings police were justified in shooting Cole Stump to death in 2020. 

Stump was killed by police Oct. 12, 2020, after a confrontation in an apartment parking lot near the 2200 Block of Avenue C in central Billings.

Despite the findings of the inquest, Stump’s sisters Tonya Stump and Tasheena Duran remain unsatisfied with many aspects of the investigation. In a joint statement Friday they questioned why certain people weren’t questioned, why it took so many people to detain their brother, and numerous other aspects of the investigation.

“Our whole family is curious as to why the 911 caller’s husband was never questioned. According (a whitness’) testimony her husband had seen more than she had and was possibly still outside while the shooting took place,” they said in the press release. “One of the videos from the officer’s car shows a witness standing next to the car, why were they not contacted and questioned? With the size of the officers, especially Bickford, how could they not contain my brother? He wasn’t a big man in any way shape or form. He was actually really skinny.”

They also questioned the officer’s ability to deescalate situations like this, as well as other aspects of the officers response to the situation.

“We’re curious if the gun in question was even really on my brother’s person, there were no forensics to prove it was. Also, with all the training that the officer’s mentioned they had for deescalating situations, how were they not able to deescalate this? They all stated this was a low level call, yet video show’s Bickford driving at a top speed of 58 miles per hour to get to the scene and once he was there he was out of his car before it was fully stopped. If it was such a low level, why such the rush? And if he felt the need to rush, why not turn on his audio pack as well as his lights so that everything can be recorded?”

The release lamented the treatment of their brother, regardless of whatever wrong he might have done and said he deserved better.

“Some officers have prior military experience, how do they explain shooting my brother in the head several times? I also feel like, once they shot and killed my brother, they couldn’t care less what happened to him. The video shows them moving around after at a normal pace. Did they not care to offer any type of medical aid? They just let him lay there and die on the concrete. They valued that of a car and can of gas more than my brother’s life. He was a human being, wrong choices be damned, he deserved to live. My brother deserved to live.”

The jury of seven heard testimony Monday from detectives, a use-of-force expert, the medical examiner, an eyewitness and the four officers involved. Testimony centered on the violent encounter that began at 10:20 p.m. as a routine low-priority call but ended 11 minutes later with 29-year-old Stump’s death.  

A witness told the jury she returned home from dinner with her husband and kids a little after 10 p.m. and went into her apartment. A few minutes later she and her husband went back outside and found a gas can near her car and saw people acting suspiciously. She called 911 and told them she thought a man and woman in a red and black car were trying to siphon gas from her car.

Four officers arrived and found three suspects in the parking lot. Stump, who initially gave officers the name John Collins, appeared to be working on the engine of one of the cars. Billings Police Officer Ryland Nelson tried to verify the identify, but the name returned no results from dispatch. At the same time, other officers on scene were piecing together evidence suggesting the car Stump was working on was stolen.

Some of the evidence included the fact the car, originally a white Chevy Impala, had been partially spray painted black, the license plate belonged to a Dodge Ram, and the vehicle identification number on the door and under the windshield had been partially obscured or rubbed off.

With the fictitious name and the probability the car was stolen in mind, Nelson and back-up Officer Jacob Grommes decided to handcuff Stump while they investigated further.

Stump began to pull away from Grommes’ grip and he and Nelson wrestled Stump to the ground, the officers testified. Stump landed mostly on his belly with his hands underneath his torso. All four officers responded and tried to wrestle Stump’s arms free, according to their testimonies.

Nelson, fearing Stump had a gun, shouted for someone to use a Taser. Grommes drew his Taser, backed up a few feet and fired it at Stump, but it had no effect on the man, the officers said.

The other two officers, Taylor Vladic and Justin Bickford, were also wrestling with Stump. Vladic had backed up when the Taser was fired, but Bickford was positioned near Stump’s head. He told jurors he issued commands for Stump to show him his hands. Stump replied by telling Bickford he was going to shoot him, the officer testified.

Seconds later Nelson called out “gun, gun, he’s got a gun,” according to Bickford. Bickford saw Stump draw a gun and begin to point it at him when he and Nelson opened fire. 

Bickford shot Stump four times. Nelson fired a total of seven times. All of the rounds were potentially fatal, but three rounds to the head and one to the aorta were likely the main causes of death, according to Dr. Robert Kurtzman with the state medical examiner’s office. The officers called dispatch for medical aid and a supervisor. Stump was declared dead at the Billings Clinic emergency room.

Kurtzman testified Stump had probably been under the influence of meth when he died. Kurtzman refused to testify as to the effect the meth would have had on Stump’s behavior, clarifying that information would depend on how much of a tolerance Stump had to the drug.

None of the encounter was captured on video or audio recording devices. None of the officers wore body cameras at the time and the dashboard cameras on each of the patrol vehicles were not pointed at Stump when he encountered police. Since the call had not been a priority, none of the officers turned on their lights and sirens, which would have activated their microphones.

Nonetheless, the jury was shown all four dashcam videos, which mainly showed the order the officers arrived on the scene and then recorded the audio of their responses once they turned on their microphones after the shooting was over.

No evidence was presented contradicting the four officers’ accounts of the events that night. Billings Police Detective David Raschkow led the investigation into the officers’ actions and determined they had followed the department’s policies and adhered to Montana law when they shot Stump. His investigation was reviewed by the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations and the Montana Law Enforcement Academy’s expert on defensive tactics and use of force, each determining the shooting was justified. The law enforcement academy specialist, Jeffrey Wilson, testified the officers were more than justified in shooting Stump and they would have been justified in shooting Stump even before he drew the gun and pointed it at officers. 

The jury deliberated for just less than 30 minutes. When the findings were read by the presiding coroner, Stump’s mother burst into tears and buried her face in her hands. The family has advocated for Stump, calling the shooting unjustified and urging reforms to police use of force. On Sunday, the family hosted a “memorial family fun day” in Billings in memory of Stump. The family told supporters they wanted to “honor who he was as a person and in life — a family man and a loving father.”