Police shot Victor Perez, whose family said he was autistic and had cerebral palsy, after a neighbor called to report someone with a knife.
Relatives of an Idaho 17-year-old with autism whom police shot and killed this month said at his funeral Tuesday that they hope his death inspires change.
“He was good. He was a good kid,” Victor Perez’s mother said in Spanish at the service.
The teen’s family thanked the people in the city of 56,000 who did not know Perez but attended the funeral. They said they hope the shooting prompts changes in the way public services treat people with mental health challenges.
Perez, whose family said he was autistic and had cerebral palsy, was shot nine times by police in the yard of his family’s home in Pocatello on April 5 after a neighbor called to report someone with a knife, according to officials.
The caller said other people appeared to be trying to get the knife from Perez. Perez’s family said that he was in a mental health crisis and that they were not threatened.
Vazquez previously told NBC News that the family was having a barbecue and that Perez found a knife that family members had hidden. Perez’s sister was trying to get the knife from him, Vazquez said.
She said that the family was not in danger and that Perez was not a threat to them.
Police Chief Roger Schei said officers had repeatedly ordered Perez to drop the knife. He said Perez stood up and advanced toward the officers while he was holding the weapon.
“In this case, two individuals were within a few feet of an armed, non-compliant individual,” Schei said at a news conference Monday. “The risk was immediate and the situation rapidly evolving.”
Video recorded by a bystander showed officers running up to the home and opening fire. There was a chain link fence between Perez and the officers, the video showed.
Vazquez said the officers did not take the time to find out what was going on before they shot him. She said Perez was having a mental health crisis.
Perez was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The family took him off life support Saturday, one day after he was declared brain dead, Vazquez said. A forensic autopsy was completed Monday, the Bannock County medical examiner said.
The four officers involved in the shooting were immediately placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure after a shooting, the city said.
The mayor’s office said criminal and internal investigations were launched, and the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force is conducting an external investigation into the shooting.
Bannock County Prosecutor Ian C. Johnson said he has asked the state attorney general’s office to review the Critical Incident Task Force’s report for any possible criminal charges.
Johnson said Tuesday that he made the request to the attorney general’s office in the interests of objectivity and to “avoid any appearance of bias, real or implied.”
