The family of 17-year-old Victor Perez, an autistic teenager who was shot nine times by police officers in Idaho earlier this year, is suing the Pocatello Police Department (PPD) over claims that officers violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Perez, who was non-verbal and also had cerebral palsy, died from his injuries after being shot multiple times by officers from the PPD following a violent outburst at his family’s home on April 5.
Officers were called by a neighbor who saw Perez holding a knife and arrived at the scene to subdue him but used deadly force instead of non-violent means of intervention. Perez’s family has said they believe they could have solved the outburst without police intervention.
Civil rights attorney John Burris, who is representing the Perez family, says the officers violated the ADA as they knew about Perez’s disability. The ADA states that officers who know they are dealing with a disabled person must use non-lethal tactics.
Newsweek has contacted the PPD for comment via their voicemail. Law firm Burris Nisenbaum Curry and Lacy has also been contacted via their website for comment.
Why It Matters
This lawsuit could impact how police handle situations involving people who find it more difficult to advocate for themselves.
What To Know
On April 5, Pocatello police were called to Perez’s family home as he was having a violent outburst.
This was not the first time they had been called to his home due to his behavioral struggles, and according to the lawsuit, they had paperwork noting Perez’s intellectual and physical disabilities.
Footage released by police of the incident shows officers arriving to his home, guns drawn. Footage then shows police yelling at Perez several times to “drop the knife.” In the video, Perez is on the ground but then stands up to take a step towards police, who were on the other side of a chain fence.
This is when police opened fire on Perez, who according to local news station KTVB not only had several disabilities but also did not understand English, shooting him multiple times.
The video released by police also includes the 911 call from the neighbor who said: “He is trying to stab everyone, it looks like.” The caller then says, “This guy, he seems pretty drunk.” The caller may not have known about Perez’s disabilities.
The footage does not show police attempting to use de-escalation tactics or any other form of non-lethal violence prevention. Police told KTVB at the time that they were not made aware that Perez was having a mental health crisis. However, the family’s lawyers are now saying the police had records of his mental and physical state.
Perez was rushed to hospital after being shot nine times and had operations including an amputation to remove the bullets. However, doctors could not save his life, and Perez was taken off life support.
The footage was released by Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad in order to answer public questions about how the shooting occurred.
PPD Chief Roger Schei said at the time: “The risk [to the police officers] was immediate,” as justification for the shooting.
However, Burris is saying the potential risk posed by Perez still disregards the ADA given the police department’s prior knowledge of Perez’s disabilities.
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), a nonprofit advocacy organization, has spoken out against the use of “autism training” for police officers, saying “an hour of learning about autism cannot overcome months of training that teaches police that in uncertain situations, the first thing they should do is escalate force to exert control.”
“There have been cases where police who have been through autism-specific training still went on to shoot and kill autistic people they were called to help.”
Zoe Gross, director of ASAN, told Newsweek: “There are several steps we as a society can take to stop police violence against disabled people. We can reduce the likelihood that disabled people will have contact with police by promoting alternatives to policing. This may look like funding crisis intervention teams staffed with EMTs, social workers and mental health professionals.
“These teams can respond to calls involving people in crisis or distress instead of sending police to intervene in these situations. Other alternatives to policing include peer respite and counseling, safe consumption sites, and housing and food assistance. All these alternatives must receive adequate funding, and one step towards that is to reduce the share of municipal funds that police departments currently receive.”
What People Are Saying
Zoe Gross, director of Advocacy at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), told Newsweek: “We must increase community oversight of police forces and make it easier to hold police accountable for violence by ending the policy of qualified immunity, which makes it very difficult to sue when police harm someone. People who want to see less police violence can advocate for policy changes like these.”
Gross added: “Police often profile or target autistic people, especially Black autistics and other autistic people of color. They may claim that someone with auditory processing issues is ‘refusing to follow commands’ that they do not understand; that someone who cannot speak is refusing to cooperate; or that someone making repetitive movements is making threatening gestures or is drunk or high. When autistic people do not understand or cannot follow a police officer’s instructions, or moves in a way that police perceive as erratic or threatening, police may immediately escalate to using force, including sometimes killing the autistic person.”
Attorney John Burris told the press: “[Officers] arrived on the scene just like gangbusters and within moments, not minutes, not hours, no effort to give the young man any opportunity to locate where he was or to self-identify with these officers; They shot and killed him.”
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador told the media at the time of the shooting: “As with all such matters, the Office of the Attorney General will conduct a thorough and impartial review once the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force completes its investigation.”
What Happens Next?
The police in this lawsuit may receive additional legal aid due to the Trump administration, as President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to explore a program that could involve law firms providing pro bono assistance to police officers accused of wrongdoing.
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