2023 A Look Back: Homer Simpson Award

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2023 A Look Back: Homer Simpson Award

This famous back-up from the beloved cartoon character Homer Simpson may have inspired Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith’s conduct during and after the events of Dec. 13, 2022. Fox Broadcasting Company photo

We can’t say for certain whether Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith backed into a literal bush as the events of Dec. 13, 2022, unfolded, but at this point it’s pretty clear that in the aftermath he did his best metaphorical impression of the infamous Homer Simpson meme.

Smith was just a week into his tenure as the county’s chief of law enforcement when resident Jason Harley Kloepfer was severely injured in a police shooting that occurred as he held his hands above his head in the doorway of his own home. The shots were fired by Cherokee Indian Police Department officers, who were there at Smith’s request to deal with what had been described to them as a potential hostage situation.

An initial press release from Smith’s office said the shooting occurred because Kloepfer confronted the officers as he emerged from his camper trailer. But when Kloepfer published home security video contradicting that story, Smith started backing up.

“Neither myself nor Chief Deputy Justin Jacobs were on the scene at the time of the shooting,” he wrote in a new statement placing blame solely at the feet of the CIPD.

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Except, it seems, he was. In their responses to a sprawling civil suit seeking millions in damages, CIPD-affiliated defendants said that Smith was indeed at the scene, and radio traffic from the night of the shooting supports this version of events. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office response said simply that “defendants lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations” that Smith was present.

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The lawsuit does not mince words in concluding its assertion that Smith was there the whole time.

“Immediately after the shooting,” it reads, “Sheriff Smith finally walked up from lurking in the shadows.”

As to whether there were any bushes in those alleged shadows, the suit remains silent.

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