Defense rests in Arizona IRS agent manslaughter trial 

PHOENIX (CN) — The defense in a federal manslaughter trial in Phoenix took one last stab on Tuesday at convincing the jury that a federal special agent who accidentally shot a colleague isn’t responsible for the victim’s death.

Internal Revenue Service Special Agent Larry Brown admits to having accidentally shot Special Agent Patrick Bauer in the torso at a gun range in north Phoenix in August 2023, but he says that Bauer’s death could have been prevented if not for a combination of failures on behalf of both the IRS and first responders.

Paramount to Brown’s defense, he says the IRS had no emergency response plan on the day of the shooting, Aug. 17, 2024.

“They weren’t prepared to deal with anything,” testified Anthony Cole, a fire protection engineer and advanced EMT who has written books on emergency preparedness and response and has reportedly developed “hundreds” of emergency response plans for government agencies and private businesses.

Minutes after Brown accidentally shot Bauer, IRS agents had 911 on the phone but didn’t know what address to give dispatchers. With another shooting range just a 10-minute drive away, first responders were confused as to what range to go to, causing delays in Bauer’s care.

It took nearly an hour for Bauer to see the inside of an operating room.

“‘Who do I call and where am I?’ should be plastered all throughout the facility,” Cole told the jury in a Phoenix courtroom.

While waiting for first responders to arrive, IRS agents refused an offer from other federal agents to drive Bauer to the hospital in their SUV. Cole the agents likely would have got Bauer to the hospital earlier than the first responders, who he said took longer than the industry-standard acceptable time to reach the scene.

Cole testified that the ambulance took more than 14 minutes from the time it was dispatched to the time it arrived at the scene. Prosecutors clarified that the first emergency vehicle to respond —  a fire engine with EMTs aboard — arrived in just eight minutes, which is the industry standard.

Federal prosecutor Nathaniel Walters cut through the variables in his questioning.

“Did the lack of a plan cause Special Agent Bauer to be shot?” he asked Cole.

“No,” Cole answered.

“Did any of these delays cause the defendant to pull the trigger on his firearm?” Walters said.

“No,” Cole repeated.

Still, the defense maintains that Bauer would have survived if he were treated sooner. Last week, Kenji Inaba, an emergency medical surgeon based in Los Angeles, testified that Bauer would have survived had he arrived at the emergency room 15 to 20 minutes earlier than he did.

But Kevin Horn, a forensic pathologist and the Maricopa County medical examiner who autopsied Bauer, said last Thursday Bauer’s injuries were so severe that he likely would have died even with immediate medical care.

Brown’s hollow-point bullet passed through Bauer’s pancreas, stomach, liver, right kidney, diaphragm and inferior vena cava — the largest vein in the body. Because the hollow-point caused so much internal bleeding, Horn said there wasn’t much anyone would have been able to do.

Brown’s defense has stipulated that the bullet came from Brown’s weapon, but not that Brown pulled the trigger, instead suggesting that the gun may have misfired. The government’s witnesses said it’s extremely unlikely that a Glock-19 would fire for any reason other than a trigger pull.

No other agents witnessed the shooting, and it wasn’t recorded on any security cameras. Because Brown exercised his right not to testify, it may never be known how the bullet was fired.

Brown rested his case Tuesday afternoon, and U.S. District Judge Steven Logan, a Barack Obama appointee, read final instructions to the jury before sending it home for the day. Closing arguments are set for Wednesday morning.

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