Transcripts of the preliminary hearing of Robert Flores, an Idaho Falls man accused of shooting at multiple officers and engaged in a standoff with Idaho Falls Police at the EconoLodge on Broadway on April 8, were filed on Sept. 27.
Flores, 46, was charged with six felony counts, including assault or battery upon certain personnel, felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, misdemeanor resisting arrest, and misdemeanor first-offense trespass. He also faced six enhancement charges of felony use of a deadly weapon, enhancement of persistent violator, and felony enhancement criminal gang on April 8.
He is being held on $1 million bond.
Flores’ preliminary hearing occurred on Aug. 13, during which Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Neal and Flores’ attorney Serhiy Stavynskyy questioned five members of the IFPD.
The first officer questioned was Christopher Reed, who has been with the department for nearly 12 years. Neal conducted the first direct examination of Reed and asked him why he was at the EconoLodge in April.
Reed said they called dispatch to the hotel to remove someone from the premises. According to a press release from IFPD, at 1:16 p.m., hotel employees told officers that two tenants stayed past check-out and would not leave. Officers did not arrive until 3 p.m. by which time one of the tenants had left.
Hotel staff told officers that the tenant was Robert Flores, and multiple officers responded because they had previously interacted with him.
Reed said they were getting a team to “prepare for essentially the worst, I guess.”
“We wanted to have enough to deal with him due to violent tendencies that we’ve had in the past with past dealings.”
Neal asked Reed why they prepared for a worst-case scenario with Flores. Reed responded that, due to the two previous SWAT incidents with Flores, it was highly probable that it would go that route.
In a press conference about the shooting on April 25, IFPD released the bodycam footage from the officers involved in the shooting. The bodycam footage shows six officers knocking on Flores’ hotel room door, announcing themselves and asking Flores to leave. When Flores failed to leave the room, an officer is seen kicking the door in and conducting a search of the room.
Officers believed a woman who was with Flores was still inside but had left before they arrived.
Reed said that he, Officer Shayden Nagle and Officer Preston Littlewood entered the room and stacked up near the bathroom door, which was shut. He said that Nagle had grabbed his ballistic shield prior to entering the hotel.
Neal asked what was done to make contact and determine if someone was in the bathroom, and Reed said that they’d attempted to make contact through commands but had no response.
After that, Reed said that a sergeant with IFPD attempted to open the door, and he heard what sounded like a gunshot.
“It startled us. Following that, I then proceeded to go back towards the wall because, through our training and experience were not going to cross that threshold of where that came from. Going into the hallway is not an option,” Reed said.
IFPD Police Chief Bryan Johnson said the bullet went through the door and hit the shield that Nagle had in front of him. He said if Nagle did not have the shield, the round would have hit him in the pelvic area.
Officer Mitch Bierma fired two rounds at the bathroom but suffered a malfunction in his firearm. Bierma was located on the outside of the room.
Neal questioned Nagel about the gunshot and said that none of the other officers next to him had deployed their tasers nor fired their guns. “From what I understood, there was only one explanation: that was a gunshot.”
Reed was asked what his thoughts were about the gunshot and said that it frightened him.
“I’ve never been shot at in my career,” Reed said.
After Flores shot at officers from the bathroom, Reed, Nagle and Littlewood made their way to the corner of the room and behind the queen-size bed. Reed said that due to his position, he was not able to get his firearm out of its holster, leaving Nagel and Littlewood to draw their weapons. The three officers attempted to use the shield as cover while crouched behind the bed.
Neal asked what happened after the shot, and Reed responded that everything happened so fast, and he just remembered seeing a figure, gunfire and being behind the shield.
Nagel said he’d never forget that moment as he saw a face staring directly at him with a “thousand-yard stare.”
“There was nothing behind the eyes besides (them) focused on me. I also saw a gun. I saw the barrel of the gun. It was not pointed directly at me, but it was angled enough towards me that I could see the circular end of the barrel.”
In the bodycam footage it shows Flores leaning out of the bathroom door and firing two rounds toward Reed, Nagle and Littlewood. Nagle fired three rounds, with two of them hitting Flores in the chest area.
“I didn’t wait For shots to be fired because I was in fear for my life as well as the lives of Officer Reed and Officer Littlewood,” Nagle said.
The three officers were stuck in the corner of the room for a total of 25 minutes until being evacuated by SWAT.
In the cross-examination of Reed by Stavynskyy, he asked the officer if he actually saw a bullet going through the bathroom door. Reed responded that he couldn’t with the naked eye.
Stavynskyy later asked if he’d actually seen a figure coming out of the bathroom with a gun. Reed said that there was a firearm coming around the corner, and then shots were fired.
“In fear of my life, I hunkered down behind the shield because that was the only protection we had,” Reed said.
Stavynskyy again asked Reed if he saw the firearm fire a round at them, and Reed responded he saw what appeared to be a firearm and then gunshots.
“So you did not see the firearm being discharged?” Stavynskyy asked.
“I was trying to protect myself behind a shield, not stare down a firearm (barrel),” Reed responded.
Flores was bound over to district court and pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 3. Flores is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Jan. 1 with a jury trial on Jan. 27.
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