Whitefish man, two Idaho officers struggled over gun in fatal shooting

AP — A Whitefish man who was shot and killed by an Idaho State Police trooper last month had been questioned by law enforcement officers for 45 minutes before grabbing a handgun and starting a struggle that ended with the shooting.

Two law officers and Alexander L. Mandarino, 26, all had “hands on the gun” struggling to gain control of the weapon before Trooper Todd McDevitt took a step back and shot Mandarino in the chest one time, according to Lt. Stu Miller with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

McDevitt and Shoshone County Deputy Adam Durflinger responded on June 12 after a highway worker requested a check on the occupant of a vehicle parked at an Interstate 90 turnout just west of Lookout Pass.

“He [Mandarino] had been there apparently for some time, and his car was kind of parked almost frontwards into a ditch and he was kind of laid back in his seat,” Miller said. “For some time he was in that position, so they were concerned, and that’s why they called the sheriff’s office.”

The investigation found Mandarino wouldn’t give officers a solid answer about why he was driving his roommate’s car with license plates for a vehicle registered to Mandarino, Miller said Wednesday.

Mandarino was outside the vehicle and at some point got in the passenger side of the car. The officers followed him, he grabbed a gun and a struggle for the weapon followed.

Mandarino tested positive for THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

Durflinger and McDevitt initially were put on paid administrative leave, but both have returned to full duty.

Miller said the detectives investigating the shooting are expecting to wrap up the investigation soon, but there are still some lingering questions about Mandarino.

“They’re trying to piece together what was [Mandarino’s] frame of mind,” Miller said. “[They] don’t know why he went for the gun.”

Bobby Atkinson of the Shoshone News Press contributed to this story.