YANKTON RESERVATION, S.D. (KELO) – There are many unanswered questions in what Zander Zephier’s family says was a deadly shooting late last month on the Yankton Reservation in south-central South Dakota. The 23-year-old Zephier had been on the run from the law. Now, his loved ones, along with Yankton Sioux Tribal leadership, want answers.
“It wasn’t just a death for our family,” Zander’s brother Zane Zephier said. “It was a death for our entire community.”
“To me, there’s something, awfully, went bad, went haywire,” said Jason Cooke, vice chairman for the Yankton Sioux Tribe.
Like many on the Yankton Reservation, Zane is looking for clarity about his younger brother’s death.
“We want someone to look into this, to find answers for us and to ensure that what happened that day wasn’t injustice,” Zane said.
Zane says U.S. Marshals fatally shot Zander at their grandmother’s home in the Wagner area. Zander was a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.
“A huge loss,” Zane said. “My whole motivation in life has been to show my little brother and sister that there’s a better life ahead than the life we grew up in, and yeah so to lose him was a big part of me.”
From a surveillance camera, viewers can only see what happened outside the home on November 27. Neither the U.S. Marshals Service nor the FBI are commenting on what happened inside. It is unknown if Zander was armed; it is also unknown if he made any movement or threat toward a Marshal.
“He went on the run,” Zane said. “He was on the run for months, and they had raided my grandmother’s home multiple times.”
Zander’s criminal history includes assault and grand theft convictions. Court papers also say he headbutted a deputy in late June in Lake Andes. In mid-July court papers say a judge gave Zander permission to leave jail for his uncle’s funeral. Court papers say Zander never returned to the Charles Mix County Jail once the furlough to attend that funeral was done.
Zander also appears on South Dakota’s sex offender registry, with a home listed as “UNLOCATABLE.” A Facebook video Zander shot inside the home gives viewers some small peeks at what happened. What sounds like breaking glass and a command are audible.
“Come out with your hands up, Zander,” an officer says on the Facebook video.
In security footage from a camera Zane’s uncle mounted outside the home, viewers can see Zander being wheeled out on a stretcher. Zane says the video also shows the marshals making light of the situation.
“He’s in a good mood,” Zane says. “He’s laughing. He’s joking.”
Zane says family was gathered across the street watching.
“I don’t think it’s right,” Zane said. “You have to understand what you just did to someone and what you just did to a young kid.”
Attitude displayed by the Marshals also bothered neighbor Michelle Irvin, who captured video on her phone.
“They gathered in a circle and were laughing, not just chuckles, they were hysterically laughing, and I could not understand why they were laughing after this tragic situation just happened,” Irvin said.
Irvin is emotional when talking about how Zander was treated after he was brought out of the home.
“They weren’t gentle with him, that’s for sure,” Irvin said. “They were not gentle. They dropped him, and they could have been a little more gentle. They knew we were all watching. They knew.”
It’s not yet clear how many times Zander was shot. Zane says federal agents told his grandmother there were two shots.
“Once in the chest and once in the abdomen, and when I had talked to the YST police, they told us that they fired three rounds,” Zane said. “The marshals fired three rounds, that was their official report to them.”
This, Zane says, also differs from what a funeral director who saw his brother’s body told him.
“He’s also the coroner, and he told me that Zander had more than two bullet wounds … four, possibly five including one on top of the head and possibly one in the back,” Zane said. “But he’s not going to be able to confirm anything until he sees the autopsy results for himself.”
Zane says the above document left at his grandmother’s home lists a knife, shell casings and a bullet among items seized by the federal government. The list does not specify if the knife was in Zander’s possession or what role it may have played. Cooke, the Yankton Sioux Tribe vice chairman, does not believe Zander was armed with any weapon.
“If he was a flight risk or a violent or a threat to anybody, he wouldn’t have got a furlough in the first place, so why would he, and yeah maybe he did not return, but he got a furlough,” Cooke said.
Cooke spoke at this recent candlelight vigil outside the home where Zander was shot.
“I want justice for him,” family member Melissa Zephier Cournoyer said at the vigil. “I want people, the higher-up people to do something. I want them to stand up for us and fight for us ’cause this was wrong.”
“This is something that shouldn’t have happened,” Cooke said.
“It was really cold, but it was a little healing,” Cournoyer said.
Now, the hope is for clarity, too.
“I hope that we get answers, like and, we get an understanding of why they did the things they did,” Irvin said. “Because I’ve watched U.S. Marshals go and do things in other situations, and they were way more, I don’t know, delicate. They didn’t come in like this.”
“We’d like to see the videos of everything,” Cooke said.
“We want to see that, and we want to see the autopsy,” Zane said.
“I’d like to know what their story is,” Irvin said. “So I hope that they can give answers to the family.”
KELOLAND Investigates reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service for this investigation. Brady McCarron, deputy chief for their Office of Public Affairs responded, saying in an email: “We are not able to comment on cases that are under investigation.” He referred KELOLAND Investigates to the FBI, saying they are investigating. KELOLAND Investigates reached out to the FBI’s Minneapolis office, which covers South Dakota. A public affairs specialist replied that no information was available.
KELOLAND Investigates also requested Zander’s death certificate, which could provide information about his final moments, but that is not yet available.
