All charges dismissed against Brian Temple, shot while fleeing police

by George Sand
Cop Block
Oct. 18, 2011

A couple of months ago, we covered the story of police in Helena, Montana who shot a fleeing man in the chest. Brian Temple, who had committed no crime at the time, was shot in the chest as he was driving away. He was subsequently charged with felony assault on a police officer. (Funny how that works, isn’t it – the man who gets shot in the chest gets charged with felony assault, while the officer who was allegedly assaulted strangely has no injuries to report).

We recently received correspondence from his father, John Temple -

Just wanted to let you know that justice has prevailed. The judge in Brian’s case informed his attorneys yesterday that he is throwing the case out of court. The evidence against the Helena police department was just to overwhelming to allow the case to proceed to trial. The Helena police department did their best to do the standard “cover-up” and manipulating of the facts but in the end, fortunately for Brian, justice prevailed.

Again, thank you for your interest in Brian’s case and all your great writing. Please, continue with your great work of enlightening people about all the injustices that occur in this country. I look forward to reading more of your articles.

Mr. Temple’s family would like to see the officer involved charged and prosecuted, and will keep Cop Block updated on the matter. Although this story could have ended with far worse scenarios, it is still important to note that Brian Temple should not have been subjected to this kind of abuse to begin with.