Idaho officials said Wednesday that they will not file charges against four Pocatello police officers who fatally shot an autistic teenager after he approached them with a knife.
Attorney General Raúl Labrador said prosecutors could not find enough evidence to prove that deadly force was not justified.
“We will thus not file criminal charges against the officers,” the attorney general’s office said in a 12-page letter.
Victor Perez, 17, who was autistic and had cerebral palsy, had grabbed a knife during an April 5 family barbecue and his sister was trying to get it away from him when a neighbor called police.
Perez’s relatives said he was experiencing a mental health crisis when he waved the knife and approached officers.
Body-worn camera video released by Pocatello police shows 16 seconds elapsed from the time police arrived at the Perez family home to when shots were fired. Officers shot Perez nine times.
In the video, an officer is heard loudly shouting “drop the knife” five times before firing — no other words or commands are audible.
“None of the four shooting officers were aware of Perez’s age or his disabilities at the time of the shooting,” the attorney general’s office said in the letter. “The officers’ knowledge was limited to what dispatch reported.”
The officers were told they were heading into a disturbance in which an intoxicated male was trying to stab others with a knife, he said.
When they arrived, the officers moved to the fence surrounding the home’s backyard, but in hindsight it would have been better for them to have kept their distance, he said.
Under Idaho law, the officers did not have a duty to retreat from the fence before they used deadly force, the letter said.
Family members declined to comment Wednesday.
A use-of-force expert who reviewed the case determined that any “reasonable” officer would have viewed Perez as an immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury, said the attorney general’s office, which did not identify the expert.
The attorney general’s office called the shooting death a “tragedy” and added that Perez suffered from developmental delays, autism and several other medical conditions.
“The state would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of deadly force was not justified in this matter because the officers were not familiar with Perez’s limited capabilities,” the letter read, adding that Perez refused repeated commands to drop the knife, that he pointed it and that he moved toward the officers.
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