A Boise man was charged with murder. Now police say gunshot may have been self-defense

The Boise Police Department and the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office dropped a murder charge against a 26-year-old Boise man and now believe the homicide may have been self-defense, according to a news release from Boise police.

Zackary Gordan was arrested in October and charged with the second-degree murder of 32-year-old Robert Nicholas, who showed up to the Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise with a gunshot wound, according to police and the Ada County Coroner’s Office. The Meridian man died early on Oct. 20 from a gunshot wound to the chest, the coroner’s report said.

Gordan “may have acted in self-defense,” according to the Boise police news release on Friday. The murder charge against Gordan was dismissed Thursday, according to online court records.

As of Friday afternoon, the charges that remain against Gordan included five additional felonies: concealment of evidence, possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver and three counts of possession of a controlled substance, according to online court records. He was also charged with a misdemeanor drug charge.

Police previously said that after an investigation, they believed Gordan got into a “verbal dispute” with Nicholas in a home near Cole Road and West Emerald Street, which led to the shooting. Authorities said Gordan and Nicholas knew each other.

They arrested Gordan and two Boise women on Oct. 21 on the 7000 block of West Emerald Street and booked them into the Ada County Jail. As of Friday afternoon, Gordan was still in custody, according to online court records.