FBI Sharpshooter Cleared in Slaying at Ruby Ridge

Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sharpshooter who killed the wife of white separatist Randy Weaver during the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, was cleared of manslaughter charges Thursday by a federal judge who ruled he was properly performing his job as a federal agent.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge dismissed criminal charges filed by the state of Idaho, citing constitutional protections for federal agents reasonably acting within the scope of their duties.

“The actions of Mr. Horiuchi had tragic results,” said the court, referring to the accidental shooting of Vicki Weaver as she stood holding her infant daughter inside the Weaver cabin door. “However, Mr. Horiuchi did no more than what was ‘necessary and proper’ for him to do to carry out his duties under the totality of circumstances.”

The Aug. 22, 1992, killing remains one of the most enduring controversies in the 11-day siege at Ruby Ridge. The incident fueled the growth of the American militia movement and left lasting criticism of the FBI’s tactics in dispatching a huge assault force to confront the Weaver family, entrenched with guns inside their remote mountaintop home.

Horiuchi has said he did not see Vicki Weaver when he fired but was instead aiming at Kevin Harris, who was running toward the cabin with a rifle and might have constituted a threat to agents outside if allowed to get back inside. After an initial firefight that left a deputy U.S. marshal and the Weavers’ 14-year-old son dead, the FBI approved controversial rules of engagement.

“The court agrees that if the only facts before the court were that Mrs. Weaver was clearly visible and was standing on the porch holding a baby, Mr. Horiuchi’s firing of the shot would not have been reasonable. However, the relevant facts . . . are that Mr. Horiuchi did not see Mrs. Weaver on the porch and that he could not see anyone behind the open door,” the court found.

A Justice Department investigation concluded Horiuchi had not committed any prosecutable offense. The county prosecutor in rural Boundary County, Idaho, then filed state involuntary manslaughter charges against the agent.

County prosecutors argued that, while Horiuchi fired his weapon “without malice,” he acted recklessly by shooting at Harris when he did not know who else was standing behind the cabin door.

“A federal judge has ruled that a federal cop is above the law, and that runs counter to my notions of both democratic government and a government of laws. The people of Idaho would be justifiably outraged,” said Stephen Yagman, a Los Angeles civil rights lawyer acting as a special prosecutor in the case.

But FBI Director Louis J. Freeh applauded the ruling, saying it “provides support for all of those in law enforcement who are prepared to sacrifice their lives in the line of duty.”

Although he called Weaver’s death “a terrible tragedy,” Freeh added: “Agent Horiuchi’s job on the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team involved making split-second decisions. These are the types of decisions that law enforcement officers face every day. Because it was his job to make such judgments, the FBI and the Department of Justice did everything within their power to ensure that agent Horiuchi’s rights as a federal law enforcement officer were fully protected.”

Horiuchi’s lawyer, Adam Hoffinger, said the decision “is fully consistent with the applicable law, and should bring to a close a long and difficult ordeal for Mr. Horiuchi and his family.”

Lodge emphasized in the ruling that he was considering not whether the shot taken at Weaver was reasonable but whether Horiuchi believed it was reasonable; not whether Weaver actually emerged from the cabin but whether Horiuchi saw her.

“In other words, errors in judgment alone do not create criminal responsibility for a federal officer acting within the scope of his employment,” the judge wrote.

In finding that the agent never saw Weaver, the judge cited conflicting testimony about whether she had ever come outside the cabin and the FBI agent’s own testimony that he was looking not at the cabin but at Harris, several yards away when he first trained his sights on him.