Posted on 04/09/2025 11:21:27 AM PDT by Morgana
An autistic teenager with cerebral palsy, armed with a knife, has been left in critical condition after being shot nine times by Idaho police officers, prompting public outrage.
Victor Perez, a 17-year-old boy described by his family as nonverbal, autistic and intellectually disabled, was gunned down by police from behind a chain-link fence just seconds after officers exited their vehicles on Saturday.
Doctors removed nine bullets from Perez's body and amputated his left leg. He now remains on a ventilator in 'critical condition' after being revived twice, Idaho News 6 reported.
'The police barely spoke to anyone,' Ana Vazquez, the boy's aunt, told The Associated Press.
'They just said get back and they just... they shot to kill.'
At around 5:20pm on Saturday afternoon, Brad Andres, a resident who owns a nearby autobody shop, stepped outside to take a call when he and his 19-year-old son, Bridger, noticed a disturbance at the Perez residence.
Andres didn't think too much of the scene at first, initially believing it was family members 'play knife fighting' in a neighbor's backyard.
'Nobody was really scared of the guy with the knife,' Andres told East Idaho News.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Remember the 21 foot rule. Was he that close?
I got questions.
21 foot rule? Well not sure but the police came up on him. He was still behind the fence of his yard and he could not go past it. From where I was watching I could see that all officers could have set off tazers and he would have lit up like the Griswold’s home at Christmas time.
He was a danger to the people on the same side if the fence as him. But they freeze the video, so can’t tell if he went after one of them.
But overall poor response. 4 cops, but none deployed with a Taser or beanbag. Also no effort to remove the others in the backyard with him.
But Idaho does have a hand in this. They treat a taser shot like a officer involved shooting. This creates no incentive to use a taser there. A man I know up there used a taser in a situation like this against someone with a knife, and instead of the normal approach as a use of force, they called out the homicide detectives (no, the guy wasn’t dead) and treated the officer exactly as if he had shot him with a handgun. Relieved him of duty until they could send it to a grand jury to approve it as acceptable use of force.
This was about 12 years ago when taser were a bit newer, and maybe they have changed.... but Idaho LE was pretty stupid back then and heavily discouraged officers from seeing it as a less lethal option.
“But overall poor response. 4 cops, but none deployed with a Taser or beanbag. Also no effort to remove the others in the backyard with him.”
You forgot “Officer Cujo” that would have taken him down. However knowing that mom she would have complained about the dog bites.
21 foot rule? Well not sure but the police came up on him.
That is called officer-induced jeopardy. It’s the same as jumping in front of a moving car and shooting them because they were coming to run you over.
This is a typical unprofessional modern cop response. And it looks like at least one had a rifle. Our militarized police have been trained and recruited to think they are soldiers.
who let this kid near knives?
He was behind a fence.
Who called the police? The young man must have scared somebody. I saw a video, he didn’t stop as the police yelled at him. You cant tell if a person has autism just by looking at them. The young man, rather big, started walking towards the police, then he lifted up the knife.
It’s sad. My BFF had CP. He died one year ago. March 28, 2024
Even at my age I could get over that low fence, and he’s charging at them knife first when they shoot. Did you even watch the video?
That could have also been an option. But it seems that a city the size of Pocatello should have had a more professional response. Less lethal, bean bag shotgun, taser, pepper spray etc. And not four idiots running up screaming commands.
That fence gave them options. two of the cops should have focused on making the family back away from him so they were not in danger, and then they can try pepper, taser, etc.
And... one remote possibility, one amped up cop might have had an accidental discharge, and they others might have simply opened fire at his gunshot.
“Even at my age I could get over that low fence, and he’s charging at them knife first when they shoot.”
That still doesn’t explain them not having less lethal, and the way they deployed. If he starts climbing the fence, then it might escalate. But this was poor police work.
Exactly.
He was coming at them with a large knife. Do that with any cop, fence or not, and the response will be pretty much automatic.
The fence was only about 4 feet high. The kid was advancing with a knife on the officers and could have easily jumped the fence. He was definitely closer than 21 feet away from them.
The video stops before the kid reaches the fence. It is not possible from the video to determine if he was trying to jump over it.
Did he try to jump the fence? It would be a marginally good shoot if he did. If not, then I would say that the police were a bit trigger happy. I just don't have a critical piece of data for a strong opinion.
The police definitely missed a chance to use a Taser before the kid charged at them. They did not even try to deploy one. They had about four seconds to do that before the kid got up, but nobody was assigned to pull a Taser.
I suppose that is not included in the protocols when the dispatcher sends them out on a "man with a knife" call. Tasers are only safe to use on an unarmed antagonist.
I would like to see the full video before setting on a stronger opinion.
They thought he was drunk. The person who called 911 thought he was drunk and said so.
No you can’t always tell if someone has autism. I saw a video on youtube about people with autism and how to tell who didn’t and who did. The ones who did? I would have thought they were junkies if I met them on the street by their odd behavior. My town has a lot of junkies and they act the same way. So unless someone tells me “they have autism” I just assume they tripping.
” The fence was only about 4 feet high. The kid was advancing with a knife on the officers and could have easily jumped the fence. He was definitely closer than 21 feet away from them.
The video stops before the kid reaches the fence. It is not possible from the video to determine if he was trying to jump over it. “
The police were called because “it was a drunk person with a knife” or so the neighbor thought.
How many drunk people you know could hop that fence? I mean I guess it could happen but most drunks I ever knew were luck to find the door much less jump a fence like a hurdle.
The advantage in a bygone era of mean, brutal, and big ugly cops was that they did not have to shoot people to defend themselves. From a gun, if it was drawn quick enough, yes, but otherwise they welcomed a chance to mix it up and usually inflict a good and memorable beating.
At a local bar hell hole there wasn’t usually any charges filed by police when breaking up a fight because for one the enjoyed it too much and two they figured the injuries were punishment enough. You just never wanted to get that sheriff depart involved if you could avoid it.
They would not have drawn down on knife. Probably a couple of them would have just used one those long telescoping lead weighted things. Or a 2x4.
I could have taken this kid down. He’s was walking spastically with what looked like little energy behind the movements..some kind of disability.
But now you never have to worry about him being 21 feet from you.
I guess no one could afford tasers or a dog.
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