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Talon Sessions

Age : 35

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/19/2025

Location : Near 1100 East and 1300 North

City : Shelley

County : Bingham

State : Idaho

Agency : Bingham County Sheriff’s Office; Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Tyler Moon; Elijah Cawthon; Jared Miller; Jasen Smith; Kollin Gardner; Cameron Hunt

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police after pursuit

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/20/2025, six sheriff’s deputies from Bingham and Bonneville counties shot and killed 35-year-old Talon Sessions of Thayne, Wyoming, in a rural area east of Shelley. Later investigation identified every deputy who fired: Bingham County deputies Tyler Moon, Elijah Cawthon and Jared Miller, and Bonneville County deputies Jasen Smith, Kollin Gardner and Cameron Hunt. The six deputies collectively fired 30 rounds.
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The incident began late on 08/19/2025. At 10:59 p.m., Bingham County dispatch received a 911 call reporting two people shooting at one another at a rural property. The caller reported that homeowner Steven Demott had been shot near the knee and that the other armed man remained somewhere in the area.
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According to the subsequent investigation, the confrontation began after Demott encountered Sessions allegedly attempting to take a four-wheeler from the property. Police said Sessions and Demott exchanged gunfire, leaving both men wounded. Sessions then left the immediate property on foot.
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Bingham County deputies responded first and requested assistance from surrounding law-enforcement agencies. Bonneville County sheriff’s deputies and Idaho State Police troopers joined the operation. Police established a perimeter and began searching for Sessions, whom officers had not yet identified but believed was wounded and armed with a handgun.
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Police deployed a drone during the search. The drone located Sessions lying in brush west of the property with a revolver. Deputies then approached him on foot. Body-camera and high-definition drone recordings captured the subsequent confrontation.
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For more than two minutes, deputies repeatedly ordered Sessions to put down the handgun and show his hands. Officers offered him medical assistance and warned that a police dog would be deployed if he did not surrender.
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According to Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley’s later review of the recordings, Sessions eventually raised the revolver toward the approaching deputies. Moon, Cawthon, Miller, Smith, Gardner and Hunt then fired. Investigators determined that the six deputies discharged a combined 30 rounds. Sessions was struck repeatedly.
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Police approached Sessions after the gunfire, secured the revolver and attempted lifesaving measures. Sessions died at the scene.
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Investigators subsequently discovered that Sessions’ revolver was out of ammunition when the deputies shot him. The prosecutor emphasized that the deputies did not know this when Sessions raised the weapon toward them.
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The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the shooting, with the Pocatello Police Department serving as lead agency and Sgt. Matthew Shutes as lead investigator. Investigators reviewed 911 recordings, police reports, body-camera recordings and unusually detailed drone footage of the confrontation.
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On 09/10/2025, Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley completed a six-page review of the shooting. Jolley concluded that all six deputies were legally justified in using deadly force against Sessions and declined criminal prosecution. The review expressly addressed criminal justification and did not determine departmental policy compliance or potential civil liability.
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Jolley also characterized the encounter as apparently intentional on Sessions’ part, writing that the evidence suggested Sessions ultimately decided to end his life once confronted by law enforcement. The available evidence establishes, however, that Sessions himself did not leave a known statement explaining his intentions.
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In October 2025, the Bingham and Bonneville County sheriff’s offices released a critical-incident video combining portions of the original 911 calls, deputies’ body-camera recordings and drone footage. The video provides unusually extensive visual documentation of Sessions’ location, the commands given by deputies and his movements immediately before the six deputies fired.
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Sessions was born on 01/28/1990 in Jackson, Wyoming, and lived in Thayne. His obituary identifies him as the father of two children and states that he was engaged to Kiley Taggart. His family held a graveside service at Thayne Cemetery on 08/28/2025.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Bingham County Deputies Tyler Moon, Elijah Cawthon and Jared Miller and Bonneville County Deputies Jasen Smith, Kollin Gardner and Cameron Hunt all fired at Talon Sessions. Their identities were disclosed in the prosecutor’s completed review rather than the initial breaking-news coverage.
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The prosecutor’s report provides unusually precise accountability for the gunfire: six individually identified deputies fired a combined 30 rounds after Sessions raised the revolver toward their position.
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Bingham County Sheriff’s Office had been involved in multiple earlier police shootings. In 2021 alone, Bingham County deputies were involved in at least two shootings that subsequently underwent prosecutorial review. One involved Nathaniel Harper, whom deputies were attempting to arrest on warrants when police alleged he drove a vehicle toward officers; another involved a separate armed confrontation. Prosecutors subsequently found the deputies’ actions justified.
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The department was also involved in a 2023 multi-agency pursuit and fatal shooting after Blackfoot police located a man wanted for alleged eluding, kidnapping and aggravated assault. Blackfoot police, Bingham County deputies and Fort Hall police pursued the vehicle until it crashed near the U.S. 91/I-15 interchange.
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Bingham County, its sheriff’s office and several sheriff’s personnel were named in a separate federal civil-rights lawsuit filed just two days after Sessions’ death. Greggory Collard filed Collard v. Bingham County et al. on 08/22/2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho under 42 U.S.C. §1983. The defendants included Bingham County, the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office and multiple named county personnel. The litigation is separate from Sessions’ death and does not name the six shooting deputies identified in this case.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/08/theft-suspect-dead-following-officer-involved-shooting-in-bingham-county/
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/08/man-identified-who-was-shot-and-killed-by-officers-after-reportedly-trying-to-steal-4-wheeler/
https://gephardtdaily.com/local/man-dead-in-aftermath-of-officer-involved-shooting-in-idaho/
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/09/taskforce-clears-deputies-in-fatal-shelley-shooting/
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2025/10/prosecutor-clears-deputies-involved-in-deadly-shooting-releases-video-detailing-timeline-of-events/
https://bonnevillesheriff.com/bingham-county-officer-involved-shooting/
https://bonnevillesheriff.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Prosecution-Review.pdf
https://localnews8.com/news/2025/09/12/deputies-cleared-in-shelley-officer-involved-shooting-prosecutor-says-deadly-force-was-justified/
https://localnews8.com/news/2025/10/23/bonneville-county-sheriffs-office-releases-new-bodycam-drone-video-in-shelley-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.schwabmortuary.com/obituaries/talon-sessions-t-sesh
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/idaho/iddce/4%3A2025cv00480/57851