On 3 January 2001 Jerome County Sheriff Jim Weaver led an evening raid on the Eden, Idaho home of George Timothy Williams, 47, after an informant said she had seen a large quantity of marijuana there the night before.[1] Corporal James Moulson, 30, and Corporal Phillip Anderson, 23, both dog handlers with the sheriff’s office, entered with the warrant team and were shot dead alongside Williams in a brief gun battle.[1][2] The two deputies were eulogised at the College of Southern Idaho as the county’s first line-of-duty deaths since 1925.[2] The state’s Medal of Honor Commission records that Anderson fired the round that killed Williams after Williams pointed a handgun at him, and that Moulson kept fighting after being mortally wounded.[3]
Williams had been described to deputies as a major marijuana dealer, but after the shooting officers found four grams of marijuana in a home the sheriff continued to call that of a suspected drug dealer.[1] Friends said Williams kept himself supplied and smoked, but was no major dealer, and accused the sheriff of acting on the word of a vulnerable informant who feared losing a child.[1] The informant’s former boyfriend had recently assaulted Williams, and friends said Williams, who was hard of hearing, may not have known who was breaking down his door.[1]
Recall and claims
Residents angry at the official silence organised a recall drive against Sheriff Weaver, gathering 1,775 of the 1,890 signatures needed in a county of about 10,000 registered voters.[1] The families of all three dead men filed wrongful-death claims naming the county, the sheriff and the informant: 10 million dollars for the Williams family, 5 million for Anderson’s and 2.4 million for Moulson’s.[1]
