Idaho cops who shot Pocatello autistic teen Victor Perez dead not to face charges as officers acted with what they knew at the time, prosecutors announce [VIDEO]

Idaho prosecutors said on Wednesday that four Pocatello police officers would not face criminal charges for fatally shooting a nonverbal teenager with autism while responding to a report in April.

'The death of 17-year-old Victor Perez was a tragedy,' Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye said in a letter announcing the verdict on Wednesday, CBS News reports.

Pocatello officers default response to 911 call

‘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,’ he added.

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 amid 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.

An immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury?

With their guns drawn, they cried, 'Drop the knife!' only for the mentally handicapped kid to rise up and take a stride toward them. Three officers opened fire with handguns, while the fourth used a bean-bag shotgun. The mute teen was shot 12 times.

Nye wrote in the letter Wednesday that 'it would have been preferable for everyone if the cops had kept their distance from the barrier.' However, he stated that the cops acted based on the facts available at the time.

Investigators eventually estimated the distance between the cops and Perez to be at 12 feet. Perez died at a hospital six days after being removed from life support.
Perez was nonverbal and had developmental delays, autism, aggressive behavior, abnormal gait and other medical conditions, according to his autopsy, the East Idaho News reported.

‘His family tried to keep him away from knives for his protection and the protection of those around him. But on April 5, 2025, he managed to gain access to a large kitchen knife with an approximately 9-inch blade,’ Nye wrote.

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 noted 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.’ While stressing that prosecutors are obligated to to base their decisions ‘only on what the officers actually knew or reasonably believed at the time,’ and on the law.

Officers from the Pocatello Police Department had responded to Perez’s home in the past, but none of them were present at the time of the shooting. Nye said AG investigators learned during the follow-up investigation that the Pocatello Police Department does not flag residences for mental health issues.

James Cook, an attorney for the Perez family, said they were ‘disappointed’ but not ‘surprised.’ He added that the family will file an amended complaint in their wrongful death lawsuit using information from the state’s materials.