Bar Owner Commits Suicide After Being Indicted For Shooting Rioter Who Attacked Him

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Hillsboro, OR – The Nebraska store owner who fatally shot the rioter who was seen on video attacking him from behind and putting him into a chokehold has committed suicide, according to his attorney.

The body of 38-year-old military veteran Jacob Gardner was found outside a medical clinic in the 300-block of Southeast Ninth Avenue at approximately 12:20 p.m. on Sunday, the Hillsboro Police Department (HPD) in Oregon confirmed, according to KETV.

Just days earlier, Special Prosecutor Frederick Franklin announced that an Omaha grand jury decided to indict Gardner on charges of terroristic threats, attempted first-degree assault, use of a weapon to commit a felony, and manslaughter in the May 30 death of 22-year-old James Scurlock, KETV reported.

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The indictment was handed down more than three months after Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced Gardner had acted in self-defense and that no charges would be filed against him in connection with Scurlock’s death.

Gardner, a decorated military veteran who served multiple tours in Iraq, said he felt as if he was in a war zone during the chaotic chain of events that preceded the fatal shooting, his attorney, Stu Dornan, told KETV.

“It’s stressful. I’m more anxious now than when I was flying to Iraq,” Gardner told KETV before the indictment was announced. “I was in from the end of 2000 ‘til the end of 2004. All trained up by 9/11. I was there in 2003 during the invasion and in Haiti in 2004 to break up the civil unrest.”

His attorney said Gardner was devastated after learning of the grand jury indictment.

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“I want to make it very clear that this was a clear case of self-defense,” Dornan reiterated. “The grand jury indictment was a shock to him. He was really shook up.”

He said that Gardner had gone to California after receiving death threats, but that he planned to return to Omaha on Sunday evening.

Gardner did not leave a note before he took his own life, Dornan told KETV.

Despite Kleine’s June announcement that Gardner acted in self-defense at the time of the shooting, Gardner was convicted of murder by social media, according to his other attorney, Tom Monaghan.

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