March shooting in Wasilla remains under review

WASILLA — An incident in which a school and state parole board member shot and injured a suspect fleeing from police remains under review by the District Attorney’s office almost three months later.

Richard Ole Larson, 63, is vice president of the Matanuska-Susitna School Board and member of the Alaska Parole Board. Larson was at his home in a subdivision off Bogard Road March 30 when a high-speed vehicle pursuit that at one point passed near a school bus turned into a foot pursuit. The driver of the vehicle, Codey Tallman, 24, ran across Larson’s property, and knocked Larson to the ground. Larson followed Tallman into nearby woods, and the pair eventually ended up on the front yard of an adjacent property. When Tallman attacked and then charged Larson on the adjacent property, Larson shot Tallman in the leg, according to charging documents in the case.

Larson has not been charged with any crime in connection with the shooting.

Tallman has remained in jail on $10,000 cash or corporate bond with a $10,000 cash performance bond requirement as a result. He’s subsequently been charged with fourth-degree theft, according to court records.

Verne Rupright, Larson’s attorney, said he hasn’t been informed of any changes in the case’s status since the shooting occurred, and said he and Larson were waiting for an announcement one way or another. Investigations can sometimes take between six and eight months to complete, Rupright said.

“If it’s coming, it’s coming,” he said. “If it’s not, it’s not.”

An Alaska law passed in 2013 lays out the justification for the use of deadly force in self-defense to prevent murder or serious physical injury, for example, which would seem to fit the situation as described in charging documents.

However, the law also states that a person may not use deadly force if the person knows that “with complete personal safety and with complete safety as to others being defended” the person can leave the area. The law also allows some exemptions: personal or leased property, a temporary or permanent residence, or where the person is a guest or express or implied agent of the owner, lessor, or resident, when directed by a peace officer, at a work place, when protecting a child or “in any other place where the person has a right to be.”

It wasn’t clear how the law applied to the situation described in Tallman’s charging documents. Peace officers didn’t direct Larson to shoot Tallman, though Larson knew Tallman was sough by police at the time of the shooting. It also wasn’t clear how the duty to retreat applied to a situation where the one using force wasn’t the property owner.

Prosecutors had dismissed on count of the original charges filed against Tallman: a fourth-degree controlled substance charge, according to court records.

Charges of failure to stop at the direction of an officer, driving under the influence, reckless driving, fourth-degree assault, reckless endangerment and failure to stop for a school bus, remained listed on Tallman’s court file. A grand jury met on the case on June 2, according to court documents.

Tallman’s next public appearance in Palmer Superior Court was set for Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.