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Show :::! vWttttXVvVvVAv-y- v:y!vWXXv;vVvX-XvX-:-Xv:-:- THE DEATH OF JOHN DINSMORE A suicide threat leads to a deadly confrontation with the Moab By Jim Stiles NOTE: Law enforcement in Grand County is maintained by three agencies: the Utah Highway Patrol, which enforces state and federal highways, the Grand County Sheriffs Office which deals with all law enforcement problems outside the Moab City limits, and the Moab Police Department which is confined to the town. Each of these departments is administered independently, but they often provide assistance to each other in the course of their work. The quoted comments by officers and witnesses in this story come, for the most part, from direct police reports and interviews conducted by the Grand County Sheriffs confronted Dinsmore. John died in the operating room less than an hour later. Wiler was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Grand County Sheriffs Office under the supervision of Chief Deputy Doug Squire. County Attorney Bill Benge reviewed the evidence and ruled two weeks after the shooting that the use of deadly force was justified under the circumstances. Wiler was returned to active duty and the incident was put behind them. But the 'inddenf has not gone away and many questions still linger. More than any other.-whWhy did this happen? Why wasn't there another way to deal with a man threatening mostly to harm himself? Why did John Dinsmore have to die? y? Office...JS In the summer of 1981, Moab, Utah had a new police chief and his name was Lester Stiles (no relation to this writer). Stiles had big city ideas about law enforcement in a small town and was police fora. The new chief requested and receioed appalled by what he considered an law enforcement additional funding for his department and soon an assorted array of gear and equipment was in the hands of the Moab P.D. under-equipp- PRELUDE TO A TRAGEDY The seven months that preceded his death were a living hell for John Dinsmore and his wife Holly. In May 1997, their 14 year old son had been removed from their home by ed state-of-the-- Sheriffs map and distance cleared Moab offwrin r.. nM nhoobng to deter One late afternoon a few months a later, a disturbance was reported at Woody's Tavern on Main oc of the newly acquired gear. Wearing riot helmets and shields and with 12 gauge shotguns nearby and at the ready, the officers practically surrounded the little bar. To passersby, the scene looked like a About then Sheriff Jim Nyland passed by, saw the congregation of officers and police cruisers around Woody's and stopped to see what the commotion was dll about. Nyland thought he knew a couple of the guys inside and he sure knew Woody, so he did what none of the Moab P.D. officers had been willing to risk he walked inside and hoi a chat. The sheriff told Woody the bar was closed, he told the drunken would-b- e troublemakers to empty their beers or he would empty the bottles for them. They resisted and argued and threatened and Nyland kept talking. Finally he just wore them down. The 'incident' ended. No arrests were made. " Today, when I ask Sheriff Nyland about that afternoon, he shrugs and says, Oh...that was no big deal." Hfs right. But it could have been. On the evening of November 24, 1997, Moab resident John Dinsmore was shot and killed by Moab City Police Sgt. Mike Wiler. He and other officers responded to a 911 call by John's wife Holly, who told the dispatch operator that her husband was threatening to kill himself. Not long after Wiler arrived on the scene at 8:56 PM, John was in the driveway of his home, belligerent, very drunk, and waving a kitchen knife. In the minutes that followed he mostly threatened himself, but at times he acted aggressively toward the police as welL When he made a threatening gesture and began to move toward Wiler, the officer fired once with a 12 gauge shotgun, hitting Dinsmore in the upper abdomen. He dropped instantly, officers cuffed him and an ambulance that was standing by rushed him to Allen Memorial Hospital. The mortally wounded and still cuffed Dinsmore was met at the emergency room by Dr. Steven Rouser. The time was 9:08 PM just 12 minutes after Moab P.D. officers first , His con,duct8entjw honesty Juvenile Court Judge Scott Johansen. John and Holly went to court that day believing he would most likely receive 30 days in the youth detention facility in Blanding and then probation. So they were stunned when Judge Johansen ordered him placed in a foster home outside the community. Their son was removed from the court room and then returned to the Blanding detention facility in shackles. For the next six months, the Dinsmore's boy was shuffled from one foster home to another and from one town to the next At one point, even John and Holly weren't sure where he was. Persistent and unrelenting efforts by the Dinsmores to regain custody were futile and by November, when they finally got to spend a weekend with him, John was at the end of his rope. Strut. A motorcycle gang had stopped for refreshment and some of its members had begun to get rowdy. A few had even carried their bur outside, a violation of Utah law. Within minutes, the Moab Police department arrived in fora, decked out in much head-to-l- Police Department . NOVEMBER 24th... On Monday afternoon after work, John passed the Rio, a popular Moab restaurant and bar, and spotted his friend Ned Robinson's car in the lot. Ned was John's accountant and something of a computer whiz; John was having trouble with his own computer and thought this might be a good time to ask for some help. He found Ned inside and, while they drank a couple of beers, John described his computer problem. Ned proposed they go to John's house and take a look. So at 6 PM, John and Ned found themselves hunkered down over the computer, trying to understand Windows and perhaps looking ahead to an evening of Monday Night Football and a few beers. Instead John produced a bottle of Crown Royal whisky, given to him by his father, shortly before his death almost a earlier. "Ned," John said, "The seal year on this bottle has never been broken and I'd like you to have the first drink with me." It was a mistake. All of us carry demons on our backs of one sort or another and some of us fare better with them than others. John Dinsmore struggled with his own pain and grief and, most of the time, he could stay on top of them. But alcohol turned the demons loose inside John's head and on this evening, with each glass of Crown Royal, he sank and deeper deeper into a black hole of bad memories and frustration and despair. The bottle reminded him of his own father, of the unresolved relationship that kept them at odds with each other for most FOUR UlMdiai m. |
