Boy shot by police declared ‘clinically braindead’; candlelight vigil to be held before life support system unplugged

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include information from a press release from the city of Pocatello.

POCATELLO — Life support for Victor Perez, a disabled teenager who was shot by police, will be disconnected.

The 17-year-old, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has been declared “clinically braindead,” his family told EastIdahoNews.com.

A candlelight vigil was originally scheduled for Saturday evening, but it has been moved to 9 a.m. Saturday before he’s taken off life support at 10 a.m.

“I know this is really short notice, so I hope that as many people can get out there in the morning as we can get so now our candles will be lighting the path for him to get to heaven, so that is his way that he will find his peace,” said Michelle Perez, who is not related to Victor, but has taken up organizing the event.

Victor was shot nine times by multiple police officers responding to a domestic disturbance on Saturday, which resulted in him being in a coma and losing a leg.

In the week since this took place, members of the community have rallied in front of City Hall to protest the actions of the police and fundraised to support Perez’s family.

Chief Roger Schei of the Pocatello Police Department held a news conference on Monday to respond to the incident and didn’t take questions from the gathered media. Mayor Brian Blad provided a response through an uploaded video on Thursday, saying that “this incident has my full attention.”

The city posted a press release to Facebook Friday evening.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time. We recognize the pain and grief this incident has caused in our community,” Blad said, in the press release.

Community members have organized two separate events to take place Saturday:

• The candlelight vigil at 9 a.m. on the Portneuf Medical Center campus.
• A protest in front of the building that houses both City Hall and the police station at 3 p.m.

Michelle said that people would be at the campus to give directions to people on where to park and go to participate in the vigil.

Michelle, who is also running the GoFundMe campaign, told EastIdahoNews.com earlier this week that she felt called to help the family after hearing about the shooting.

“We would like you to join us for a prayer chain for Victor and his family to show him our love and support,” she wrote in the Facebook event. People can bring their own candles to the vigil, but the event description states that they will also have “some candles” for people.

The vigil’s event description also states that a donation bucket will be passed around to provide financial support to the Perez family.

And it’s unclear how many people will show up to protest on Saturday, but people have already shown up to protest the incident at the city building.

Previous protests

On Sunday, a crowd of around 50 people gathered to stand along Pocatello Avenue after a video taken by the 911 caller spread online. Some of the protestors’ signs read “Bloody Hands, Dirty Cowards,” “Do Better PPD,” “Hold PPD accountable” and “What are Tasers for?”

A protest was then organized for Wednesday, but was canceled beforehand. The organizers told EastIdahoNews.com that this was due to “concerns over high tensions and emotions surrounding the investigation.

Despite this cancellation, six people still showed up to protest Victor’s shooting.

Leo Coats, who showed up to protest on Wednesday, found it encouraging that drivers often honked their horn as they passed the protest.

“It’s a really good feeling that people share the same beliefs, that people are cheering us on. Even that little honk can help,” Coats said.

The primary organizer introduced themselves as KJ, and explained that they decided to put out a message on Facebook asking people to still show up to protest.

“It’s natural that there’s tensions in the community because it’s a really bad thing that’s happened, and I think that as much protesting that can happen, as much visibility as this gets, the better,” KJ said.

The city’s Friday press release said that the incident is still under investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force, and that its finding would be released, “at some point in the future.”

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