Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

On the eve of trial, charges were dropped Tuesday against a former Iowa State University basketball standout who shot a man during a September fight that reportedly started over a racial slur.

Hurl Beechum, 42, was scheduled to go to trial on charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, going armed with intent, willful injury and assault stemming from the shot he fired into the leg of Colton McDaniel, 21, from a 9mm handgun.

The fight broke out in front of the Glenwood house rented by Beechum's mother and stepfather, Richard Hutchinson, who is the high school principal in the western Iowa town of around 5,200.

RELATED: Former ISU player charged in Glenwood shooting

A Tuesday statement issued on behalf of Mills County Attorney Tricia McSorley's office said that "ongoing investigation" by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and prosecutors showed it was reasonable to believe that Beechum was justified in firing the shot.

He immediately claimed after the shooting that he was acting in self-defense, telling officers who arrived at the scene that "they jumped us, so I had to shoot them," according to an affidavit that was filed in the case against him.

"Through an ongoing investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and local law enforcement, along with extensive discovery by the Mills County Attorney's Office, it was determined that there is reasonable doubt as to who was the primary physical aggressor of the incident," the statement said. "It is reasonable to believe Mr. Beechum acted with justification at that time."

The statement is a reversal from what McSorley told journalists when she announced the charges in September. McSorley at that time said Beechum "really placed everyone in danger" when he fired the shot and that there was no evidence his life was in danger.

Under Iowa law, firing a gun at someone qualifies as deadly force that is only justified if the shooter reasonably believes that an attack is life-threatening.

The incident put the small Iowa town on edge and one man, Liam Russell Whitehouse, was arrested after making what prosecutors described as a public call for vigilante justice against the Hutchinson family. Police found a samurai sword and a BB gun inside a car Whitehouse was driving just hours after the shooting, though a felony case against him has been dismissed, records show.

McSorley was in court and not immediately available to speak with a journalist Tuesday. Beechum could have faced up to 25 years in prison if he was convicted on all the charges, and jury selection in his trial was set to start Wednesday. DeShawne Bird-Sell, a Glenwood attorney representing Beechum, was also not immediately available.

Beechum's mother, Randi Hutchinson, was reached by phone but had no comment on the development.

Omaha attorney James Martin Davis said after the shooting that he anticipated bringing a civil lawsuit against Beechum on behalf of McDaniel, who suffered a broken bone from the bullet that pierced both his legs.

On Tuesday, Davis said he's confident that McDaniel could still choose to sue, though they had not filed any complaint in court yet. Davis said he was in Orlando and had not found out earlier about the dismissal.

"I'd have to visit with the district attorney before I can make any judgment," he said.

The muddy details of the Sept. 27 shooting have been made public in affidavits tied to the criminal cases against Beechum and others involved. It began when a group of six teenagers and young adults were walking on a sidewalk in front of the Hutchinson house just before 5:45 p.m. Richard Hutchinson, who is black, was outside cleaning his car with his wife and heard one person in the group use the "n-word."

A physical fight started after Hutchinson approached and tried to "verbally correct the group of individuals about the inappropriateness of the slur," according to one affidavit. Denver Cook, 19, reportedly punched the high school principal in the face and knocked him unconscious. As the fighting stopped, Beechum went into the house to get the Taurus 9mm handgun.

Beechum reportedly found the group still standing around Hutchinson, who was on the ground, when he returned with the handgun. According to an affidavit written by Iowa DCI special agent Daniel Dawson, Beechum walked up to the group and said, "You want to talk s--- now, mother(expletive)," before shooting McDaniel.

In September, McSorley said that the fight and the shooting were two, separated incidents and that evidence showed people in the group had started trying to help the principal before Beechum returned. Hutchinson returned to work in early October.

McSorley's office also dropped charges last week against McDaniel and Cook with a similar explanation that there wasn't "sufficient evidence" to show who, exactly, was the primary aggressor in the brawl. Davis, the attorney representing McDaniel, said Wednesday that McDaniel was on the ground "tending" to the principal when Beechum shot him — a claim that he said was backed by medical records and ballistic evidence.

"“He was totally defenseless and unarmed when he was shot,” Davis told The Des Moines Register.