Police: Shooting outside Rocker Room accidental

COEUR d’ALENE — Coeur d’Alene Police exhausted all leads in the fatal shooting of Richard Baumgartner and have closed the case, saying the shooting was most likely accidental and self-inflicted.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said the investigation has been shelved unless another eyewitness comes forward with new information in the case.

White and Coeur d’Alene Police spokesman Jared Reneau met with The Press on Thursday to discuss the investigation and how police arrived at their conclusion.

Reneau gave The Press an overview of the events as they unfolded the night of Dec. 13. He said a patrol officer was in the downtown area looking for a stolen vehicle when he passed a Blazer with its door wide open sitting in a parking lot near the Rocker Room bar on Coeur d’Alene Avenue.

Reneau said the vehicle looked suspicious so the patrol officer stopped to check it out.

The officer found Baumgartner, 22, of Coeur d’Alene inside the cab of the Blazer and he was obviously hurt.

“Mr. Baumgartner was still alive. He was showing signs of life at that point,” Reneau said, adding the officer obviously knew it was something serious and initially thought Baumgartner may have been the victim of a bar fight. “He didn’t know the extent of his injuries until medical arrived.”

As medics began life saving efforts, Reneau said the driver of the Blazer, Nikolaus Berger, 23, returned to the vehicle saying “I am the driver and this is my friend.”

Berger reportedly told police Baumgartner accidentally shot himself while showing off a new pistol he had purchased days earlier.

Police took Berger back to the police station and interviewed him, but police say he did not give them all of the facts at that point.

“He omitted some information and wasn’t entirely truthful with us,” Reneau said. “He basically didn’t mention that there was a third person in the Blazer.”

Reneau said police already believed there was a third person in the Blazer because of the way Baumgartner was found sitting in the cab. Baumgartner was found sitting on the center console of the blazer because the back of it was full of stuff, which indicated someone was sitting on either side of him in the cab.

Berger did tell police Baumgartner was kind of waving the gun around inside the cab, and the gun accidentally went off and a bullet struck him on the right side of his head above the ear.

“I spoke with him for 45 minutes to an hour and the facts I had at the time were consistent with his story,” he said. “Initially we didn’t have enough (to hold him); it was an accidental shooting at that point, so as the rest of the investigation was continuing, Mr. Berger left and went home.”

Reneau said they went to the hospital to get more information on the case, and the third person, Brenen Best, 22 of Coeur d’Alene, showed up to tell police he was in the car when the gun went off accidentally.

Reneau said Best gave police almost the same story Berger gave them.

“At that point both of them were telling us it was an accident,” White said. “Not a suicide, not a murder — an accident.”

White said police had also learned Baumgartner had, in fact, purchased the gun two days earlier, so their stories seemed to match the evidence police were uncovering.

Police then brought both Berger and Best to the police station for more questioning.

Reneau said Berger was upset but his emotions appeared to be consistent with someone who just witnessed an accidental shooting. Police quickly learned Best was a felon on parole at the time of the shooting, and that is why they tried to conceal the fact that he was at the scene.

Best was not allowed to consume alcohol or handle a firearm because he was on parole, Reneau explained.

White said even though the men's stories appeared to be consistent with the evidence police had gathered, “we didn’t necessarily believe what we were being told.”

White said the police decided to do some lab tests to confirm the men's stories. Police conducted a gunshot residue test on both Best and Berger, which came back inconclusive.

Both had some residue on them, but nowhere near what police would have found if one of them had actually fired the weapon. In fact, White said the amount of residue they did find was consistent with where the two were sitting in the cab of the Blazer when the gun went off.

Police also tested their clothing for blood spatter evidence and found none. Berger had washed his clothes before turning them over to police, but Best’s clothes were the same clothes he was wearing at the scene.

“That revealed no evidence at all,” White said.

Both Berger and Best also agreed to polygraph tests, which Berger passed and Best failed. However, White said Best was under a lot of stress because he was serving time for violating the terms of his parole, and he is also facing felony possession of a firearm charges.

“He had been handling quite a bit at the time he took his polygraph,” White said, adding that could have caused him to fail the test.

Police also confiscated the Blazer to do a blood splatter test to confirm the way Baumgartner was shot, and determined it was consistent with the narrative of the accidental shooting.

In fact, White said, Berger gave police a detailed description of how Baumgartner was holding the handgun when it discharged. The testing confirmed the trajectory of the bullet and position of the muzzle of the gun when it was fired and that matched Berger’s description of the accidental shooting.

“At that point we had to say it appears this was a tragic accident,” he said. “There is still a small chance that someone else shot Baumgartner, but I cannot prove it either way.”

White said if new evidence comes to light or another eyewitness steps forward with new information, he would certainly be willing to reopen the case, but for now police have done all they can do.

Reneau said Berger has been cleared, but Best is still facing prosecution for felon in possession of a firearm charges.