Idaho camper cleared in East Oregon shooting

1. My husband is not a twerp or a dumbass. He is a 38-year-old engineer, Magna Cum Laude graduate from Washington State University, and a decorated combat veteran who nearly lost his leg in the invasion of Panama (1st Ranger Batallion, 75th regiment; Ranger tab, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman's Badge, etc., etc.).

2. The grand jury did not deliberate for 7 hours. Associated Press writer Steven DuBois in the Portland, Oregon office messed up his rewrite. The grand jury heard 7 hours of testimony. I have asked the AP to issue a correction to their story as, among other things, they said my husband was "in" an all-terrain vehicle. He was riding a Yamaha Raptor (396-pounds) and not riding in a Jeep, or some other enclosed, one-ton-plus ATV.

3. The District Attorney of Baker County sold the grand jury a bill of goods. There were a total of 14 witnesses (including owner of a construction company, owner of commercial real estate, and a couple of grandparents) to what Mr. Sauer did, including our two small children. Mr. Sauer initiated the conflict with our party. He drove up to the area where we were riding, stopped for a minute or two (we were at an intersection and I thought he didn't know which was to go), then gunned his truck (with camper) through a zero-visibility cloud of dust and nearly ran over my husband and could have ran over one of the children who was riding a quad (there were four quads operating in the area and three of them had children aged 15 and under riding on them). After Mr. Sauer's stunt, the men in our party went to where Mr. Sauer had parked and told him he could have killed one of our children. Mr. Sauer ranted that we were riding in a protected area.

4. MR. SAUER DID NOT FIRE A WARNING SHOT. A person would, indeed, have to be stupid to not react appropriately to a warning shot. Mr. Sauer was convinced that we were riding our quads in an area that was a protected wildlife preserve (It was not. He was mistaken). He was taking photos of us and my husband rode near him to give him something to take a photo of - to be a jerk, sure, but that should not get a person shot. While my husband was spinning a cookie in the middle of the road, Mr. Sauer fired three quick shots at him with a handgun loaded with hollow-points. He missed with the first and third and nearly killed him with the second. His femur was shattered and his femoral artery was near-fatally damaged. He lost half of his blood – most of it in the gravel road between where he was shot and getting back to our friends’ Expedition - and his surgeon was very impressed that he even lived.

5. After Mr. Sauer shot my husband, he hopped in his truck and drove down the road to where I was loading up my husband of 17 years, trying to run us over. A friend in another vehicle put himself between us.

6. Mr. Sauer tried to prevent us from getting to the hospital. He chased us for 35-miles on a winding, two-lane highway, keeping within a few car lengths of us while we were doing 80+ MPH. He told the police he was heading into town at the same time as us. In a Ford with a large cab-over camper.

My husband, my children, our friends, their children - we all were victimized by Mr. Sauer that day. And we were further victimized by the crap that Mr. Shirtcliff (Baker County DA) presented to the grand jury. There is a saying that "you could indict a ham sandwich" - if that's what the DA wants, or you could NOT indict an attempted murderer. Baker County is a very small county. Prosecuting Mr. Sauer would likely have wiped out their entire budget. They would have needed experts to tell them that the x-rays of my husband’s leg do, indeed, show that the bullet entered his thigh from the side and back, that’s why there are all of the nifty little lead fragments from his hollow-point behind my husband’s knee and the point of entry is in his thigh. Not center of mass, nor elsewhere in the front of his body. Ever try to run over something (a log, or tree root on the trail) with your body contorted so that your thigh is facing forward and your knee is facing almost behind you? You’d crash.

This case, though there isn’t one now, is a complete and total injustice. Mr. Sauer is not a hero for protecting his wife and himself. They didn’t need protecting. We were having a wonderful day until that guy drove his truck into the middle of our group and started causing problems.

My husband will be in pain for the rest of his life and will likely never regain full use of his foot due to nerve damage, and may even loose his job because it’s hard to think clearly or even sleep when you’re in constant pain.

Yippee for Mr. Sauer. My hero.

Here’s your tip for the day: don’t believe everything you read. And if you do, wait until you get written about in the paper and it’s all screwed up. Nothing like having lies written about you or a loved one. And nobody cares because the victim always says “but it wasn’t my fault!”

Have a great evening. It'll be a long time before we do.

You have your point of view but it seems others see it differently. For the record I never used any obscenities towards your husband and I don't appreciate you assigning them to me in your post. I'm sorry all of this has happened to you and the other party involved. In fairness let the other readers read this report.

Here's how the events that led to the shooting unfolded, according to Shirtcliff:

Durst, his wife and several friends were camping at the South Shore Campground near Phillips Reservoir on Labor Day weekend and had been riding the quad runners near the east end of the reservoir.

Sauer drove his pickup truck and camper into an area where Durst and his party were riding. Sauer and his wife, Debra, also were camped in the area and were returning to their campsite when they saw Durst and his friends riding in an area marked "no motorized vehicles."

Durst and two other men confronted Sauer near his camp. After leaving the area where Sauer was parked, Durst came back riding a quad runner and began spinning the vehicle in circles, stirring up dust and throwing rocks on Sauer's wife.

She yelled for her husband, but he could not see her because of the dust in the air. Shirtcliff said Sauer became concerned for his wife and moved toward her and Durst, firing a warning shot into the air with his 9 mm handgun.

Durst then stopped spinning the vehicle in circles and began driving in Sauer's direction, Shirtcliff said. Sauer said he believed Durst was going to run him over with the quad runner, so he fired his gun, hitting Durst in the left leg.

After the shooting, both parties left the area, traveling toward Baker City, Shirtcliff said. Police met them on Highway 7 near the Unity Junction. Durst was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Services and later was flown by air ambulance to Boise. Sauer was detained and interviewed by police. Members of the Baker County Major Crime Team investigated.

During the grand jury session, Oregon State Police Sr. Trooper Scott Skinner of Ontario reconstructed the scene. He used charts and photographs to show where blood and other physical evidence were found, Shirtcliff said. Other witnesses, including Sauer and Durst, also were interviewed.

I feel compelled to respond to Mrs. Durst as she has raised several interesting points.

1. I have the utmost respect for the commitment and sacrifices of those that have served our country in the military forces. And it also takes great commitment to graduate Magna Cum Laude. However, neither of those accomplishments stops someone from being a bully prone to violence and that is exactly what Mr. Durst is.
2. Your husband was riding “on” a Yamaha Raptor racing ATV. The only dust on the road that could have caused confusion for anyone was created by Mr. Durst coming out of the rangeland, jumping the burm at the side of the road and spinning circles in front of our pickup on the gravel road that we were trying to drive down. The children were off the road riding on the rangeland.
3. When three adult men came down the road to talk to us, there wasn’t anything said about the children. They were extremely agitated and belligerent that we had driven through their group. They let us know that they were blocking the road and we would “Play hell getting out” and Mr. Durst yelled “I’m going to kick your ass old man”. We were parked at the end of a dead end road and there wasn’t any other way out. When Mr. Durst came back down the road into our camp about 2 minutes later riding his racing ATV at a high rate of speed and attacked us, we were reasonable in assuming our lives were in danger.
4. Yes Marvin fired a warning shot, someone from Durst’s own party testified to that fact during grand jury. After the warning shot, Mr. Durst turned his quad and rode straight towards Marvin. Again someone from Durst’s own party testified to that. There were two rounds missing from the clip along with two empty casings retrieved by OSP at the scene.
5. When we tried to leave the area to go to the Sheriff’s office, the road was blocked with vehicles and they were not going to let us through. Even though we advised them we wanted to go to the Sheriff’s office and report the incident, it was still a couple of minutes before someone in the Durst party told the others to move their vehicles so that we could get through.
6. Anyone familiar with the area and highway know that a large pickup and camper isn’t able to drive the road at 80 mph and it was only 16.1 miles (verified with a GPS) from the location of the shooting until traffic was stopped on the highway. When we were stopped, we were a dozen or so vehicles behind Durst. Because of the false 911 call placed by someone in Durst’s party, we were approached aggressively on the highway by law enforcement officials with guns drawn and taken into custody.
7. The Durst party had barricaded the road and threatened us with bodily harm. They had total control of the situation. Marvin doesn’t consider himself a hero for his actions. He did what was necessary given the life-threatening circumstances.
8. The Oregon State Police and the Baker County Sheriff’s office investigated the incident and in addition to the Baker County District Attorney’s office and citizens of Baker County felt Marvin’s actions were reasonable
9. Everyone involved in this incident lost, there were no winners. Especially the children that were encouraged to vandalize federal property, witnessed the intimidation and terrorizing actions of the adults in their party and witnessed the serious consequences for those actions.
10. And Mrs. Durst is right; no one likes to have lies written about yourself or a loved one. And the victim always says “but it wasn’t my fault!”. But who is really the victim?

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