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MOTT, N.D. — On April 21, a shooting rocked a small community in western North Dakota. A dad was shot and killed by police inside the school as kids were being dismissed for the day.
The case file is huge. It includes nearly 200 pages of reports, hundreds of crime scene photos and several interviews — including the mom of the child, school staff and the deputy himself.
"Pisses me off he took it to that level, like why, in front of his own kid," said Tiffany Glover during an interview with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation shortly after the shooting.
She's the ex-wife of 34-year-old Jeffrie Ray Glover Jr.
She told BCI agents that Jeffrie Glover texted her around 6 a.m. on April 21 asking her to pick up their 7-year-old son from the Mott-Regent School at the end of the day.
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A few hours later, she informed her ex-husband that her new boyfriend would be picking up their son. That started an argument, and Tiffany Glover said she would pick the child up.
Tiffany Glover got to the school first, and minutes later, Jeffrie Glover showed up demanding he was taking their son. He started swearing at his ex-wife and the office staff, according to Tiffany Glover's interview.
"So, I had called the sheriff and I was like, 'I need a deputy down here, like I'm not walking out of the school, I don't feel safe,'" she told BCI agents.
Hettinger County Sheriff's Deputy Jed Kohler was the only officer on duty in the entire county at the time and was near the school, arriving in minutes.
Jeffrie Glover told Kohler, "'She's trying to take my (expletive) kids away from me, she's trying to keep them. It's my time,'" Kohler recalled as he was interviewed by BCI agents. "I said, 'OK, let's talk about it, we'll get this worked out,'"
Kohler said Jeffrie Glover then walked out of the school but came back in, "plowing" through kids leaving the building for the day.
Kohler said he followed Jeffrie Glover into the cafeteria area.
"I said, 'Stop or I'm going to tase you.' He turns around. He says, 'You're not going to (expletive) tase me,' He turns back around, and I tase him. He drops," Kohler recalled.
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Kohler then tried to handcuff Jeffrie Glover.
"He just came alive. He ripped his arm around, and I went down with it, and then he took his other hand as he was laying on the ground and he grabbed my hand, and he said, 'I'm going to (expletive) kill you,'" Kohler said during his interview with the BCI.
Tifffany Glover grabbed the couple's son and ran from the school.
"I took him, and I ran out of the school with my kid, because he did not need to see his dad like that," Tiffany Glover told BCI agents.
Kohler broke free, but Jeffrie Glover got up and charged at him. The deputy fired his stun gun again.
"The prongs come out, and he just bear hugs me, and I'm getting tased as soon as he bears hug me. ... I'm trying not to go down," Kohler recalled.
However, Kohler said Jeffrie Glover fell on top of him, causing the officer to hit his head and black out.
"The next thing I remember is seeing nothing but tan, like I am in a tornado," he said during the interview.
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Still on the floor, Kohler said Jeffrie Glover then started pushing on his throat, and he was having problems breathing.
"I reached for the one knife I had, and I had it half way out, and I was going to use it, I was trying to start to get some some space," Kohler said.
The deputy said Jeffrie Glover then backed off and said not to stun him again. Kohler told him to calm down and went to put the knife away. That's when he said Jeffrie Glover came back at him on the floor and started reaching for either the deputy's knife or gun.
"He was probably a good 6 or 10 inches away. I pushed and I shot at the same time because I thought I was (expletive) done for," Kohler said.
Jeffrie Glover was shot in the chest and died at the school.
The Hettinger County prosecutor said Kohler had no other choice.
"Did you feel you had any other options than the one that you chose?" a BCI agent asked during the interview.
"No. I thought at that point I am the only one in between him and the kids in that school, and the way he was acting, and the way he was pushing on my neck, and how exhausted I was, and him reaching for my knife, I thought I was done for," Kohler responded.
The school had surveillance cameras that should have captured the entire event, but they broke about two weeks before and had not been repaired.
