Newly-released bodycam footage shows the moment police gunned down Victor Perez, a teen with autism and cerebral palsy, within seconds of arriving at his home in Idaho.
Perez was declared brain dead, and his family revealed they made the decision to take him off of life support on April 11, just under a week after the officer-involved shooting in Pocatello. Authorities were called to a residence there, near Harrison Avenue and West Bridger Street, the evening of April 5 to investigate a report of a physical disturbance involving a person with a knife.
In audio of the 911 call, released Thursday along with bodycam and security camera footage, a man can be heard describing a scuffle between a group of people, one of whom appeared to be intoxicated and wielding a weapon. Perez, who walked with a staggered gait due to his disabilities, was chasing people in the yard.
According to his aunt, Anna Vasquez, the teen had the mental age of a 5-year-old.
“This guy, he seems pretty drunk,” the caller says. “He keeps running at them with a knife and falling over.”
Surveillance footage from a nearby camera, shows what police called a “prolonged altercation” in the backyard, which had been “underway 15 minutes before” officers showed up.
When they arrived on the scene around 5:20 p.m., Perez was behind a chain-link fence, on the ground and still wielding the knife. In bodycam footage, officers can be heard telling the teen to drop the weapon. He does not listen, and instead gets to his feet and starts to move toward the officers, who were still on the other side of the fence.
Three officers opened fire with their handguns, while a fourth fired a bean-bag shotgun, officials said Thursday.
Perez was struck nine times and underwent a series of surgeries, including a leg amputation, before succumbing to his wounds.
Perez’s family has said the teen was suffering a behavioral episode at the time of the shooting and that authorities unnecessarily escalated the situation. They also noted that they can typically calm Perez when he gets agitated.
“Not once did they tell his family members that they would shoot if they didn’t move away from Victor, and there’s no chance that they really believed Victor was able to stab them from behind the fence,” Ben Nisenbaum, who is representing the family, said in a statement to NBC News.
Responding officers were not aware of Perez’s intellectual disabilities before their response, officials said.
The shooting remains under investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force, the results of which will be reviewed by the attorney general.
