BOISE — The Idaho Attorney General’s Office will not file charges against four Pocatello police officers who shot a teenager with developmental disabilities this spring.
The officers fired 14 times in fewer than two seconds, with 12 of the bullets hitting 17-year-old Victor Perez. The police were called to his home on April 5 for a report of a disturbance. The teenager died a week later after doctors amputated his leg and he was clinically declared brain dead.
The shooting garnered attention from around the world. Cell phone video of the incident has been viewed millions of times, and protests have been held across the state with participants demanding justice for Perez. Members of the community expressed outrage at City Council meetings and demanded the officers be arrested and charged.
The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the shooting, and Bannock County Prosecuting Attorney Ian Johnson asked the office of Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
In a 12-page letter sent to Johnson on Wednesday morning, Idaho Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye acknowledged the shooting was a tragedy and explained why the officers will not be charged.
“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,” Nye wrote. “We will thus not file criminal charges against the officers.”
If only it were that easy. Many of us have family we help take care of (and who wouldn’t move because they are to old). And children who would suffer greatly by such a drastic move (mine has special needs, so moving means new doctors and schools…). Then there is the issue of a job.
Those in power have done a great job making it hard for people to just up and move.
I am in the same boat. I’m ready to up and leave for almost anywhere else …but I can’t leave my family here. And they don’t want to move or can’t move