Authorities defend Minn. jury's decision to clear officer in swimming trunk shooting

Today, Anoka County assistant prosecutor Andrew Johnson said the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Deputy who shot 24-year-old Tyler Hileman to death last July, was deemed justified by a grand jury.

"Under Minnesota law peace officers are allowed to use deadly force to protect themselves from death or bodily harm," Johnson said.

Questions outnumbered answers in this case and so three weeks ago it was taken to a grand jury to determine if Deputy Todd Waldron was justified to shoot Hileman, or, if Waldron was guilty of second degree murder.

"The only question the grand jury had before it was whether there was probable cause to believe that Waldron's actions were murder, the jury said no," Johnson said Tuesday.

On July 20th of this year, Waldron was in plainclothes heading to a drug investigation in Kasota. Hileman was driving with friends to an apartment complex.  Waldron, in an unmarked car, says he saw Hileman driving erratically, and illegally off the road and called for backup.

But, he then encountered Hileman at the same apartment building he was at for the drug call.  Waldron says he demanded Hileman's license and Hillman refused and then things got physical.

Waldron says Hileman was choking him and he feared for his life.So, Waldron says he grabbed his firearm and shot four times.

Hileman's friends told police that Hileman was trying to back away when he was shot.  He was not a threat they said, as he was only wearing swimming trunks, but the autopsy showed that Hileman was shot from just inches away, a direct contradiction of Hileman's friends stories.

Also at issue was whether or not Hileman knew Waldron, again in plain clothes, was a deputy.

The attorney's say it was obvious. He (Waldron) said Hileman looked at his badge and gun several times. 

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