Idaho teen with autism dies after police shooting
POCATELLO, Idaho — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador's office said it will not seek criminal charges against four Pocatello police officers who shot a nonverbal teenager with autism, who later died, while responding to a call in April.
"The death of 17-year-old Victor Perez was a tragedy," Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye wrote in a letter outlining the outcome on Wednesday.
He added: "The State would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the four officers who discharged their weapons were not justified in using deadly force. We will thus not file criminal charges against the officers."
The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the shooting. Prosecutors said they focused on what the officers reasonably knew at the time.
"The officers' knowledge was limited to what dispatch reported, and dispatch's knowledge was limited to what the 911 caller reported. Neither the 911 caller, dispatch, nor the officers were aware of Perez's age or his disabilities. Instead, the officers were told they were heading into a disturbance where an intoxicated male was trying to stab others with a knife," the letter states.
Officers were called to Perez's home on April 5 by a neighbor, who saw the teen holding a knife and in an altercation with members of his family in their backyard. When officers arrived, they moved to a 4-foot chain-link fence around the backyard. Perez, who also had cerebral palsy, had fallen over and was on the ground when officers arrived. Guns drawn, they repeatedly yelled, "Drop the knife!" but he instead stood up and began to step toward them. Three officers opened fire with their handguns, while a fourth fired a bean-bag shotgun, officials have previously said.
Nye wrote in the letter Wednesday that, "it would have been better for everyone had the officers kept their distance from the fence." But he said the officers acted on the information they had at the time.
Investigators later estimated the distance between the officers and Perez at about 12 feet.
Perez died at a hospital six days later after being taken off life support. An autopsy documented 12 gunshot wounds.
A use-of-force expert hired by the state found that "any reasonable officer" in the same position, with the same limited information, would have seen the person with the knife as "an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury" when the shooting began, the letter from the Idaho Attorney General's Office states.
The letter also notes that Idaho law "does not require officers to use less lethal options or to retreat when deadly force is justified." It also does not require police to try a Taser or other less-lethal tools before using deadly force.
In the letter, Nye acknowledged the public outrage the case garnered.
He wrote that the situation is "tragic and heart-rending," and that if officers had known more at the time, "our conclusions might be different." But, he added, prosecutors must base decisions "only on what the officers actually knew or reasonably believed at the time," and on the law.
James Cook, an attorney for the Perez family, told CBS News they expected this outcome but will keep fighting in civil court.
"We are disappointed. However, we are not surprised," he said.
Cook said the family will file an amended complaint in their wrongful death lawsuit using information from the state's materials.
Read Nye's full letter below.
Andres Gutierrez joined CBS News Detroit in September 2022. He comes from KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, serving as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor.
