This story was originally reported by East Idaho News.
Public records reveal some city officials were concerned and confused about what happened during and after the police shooting of a 17-year-old disabled boy, who later died from his injuries. They also reveal that Pocatello police had come in contact with Perez multiple times before.
Multiple Pocatello police officers shot Victor Perez, who had cerebral palsy and autism, at least nine times on April 5 on the 700 block of North Harrison Avenue. The call was about a domestic disturbance that had been reported to dispatch by a neighbor. Perez died from his injuries on April 12 when he was taken off life support at Portneuf Medical Center after he was declared brain dead.
EastIdahoNews.com requested the records from any communication between Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, Public Information Officer Marlise Irby, Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei and any member of the Pocatello City Council regarding the shooting and death of Perez between April 5 and April 15, 2025, along with any police reports, photos and incident documentation regarding Perez between 2017 and 2025.
Here’s what we found.
Concerns from the City Council
On April 7, two days after the shooting and after receiving many inquiries from both local and national media about the details surrounding Perez and his condition at that time, emails show that Pocatello City Councilman Hayden Paulsen expressed concern to Mayor Blad about the social media uproar following the incident.
Referring to emails from the media regarding a video of the shooting, Paulsen emailed Blad asking, “Are we having a meeting about this? Not sure how this works. I’ve seen it on Reddit, and people are spreading it a lot on other social media. The video is not good.”
According to emails sent between Paulsen, Blad, and Chief Schei, at least one City Councilmember was distressed after seeing police snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings during a peaceful protest at the Pocatello Police Department following Perez’s death.
On April 12, Paulsen sent the two officials an email with the subject “Police on the Roof”, stating he was using his city council email to “make sure this is public record.”
“In the last 30 minutes, I have received multiple phone calls about snipers on the roof, and am seeing it from News 8. Am I living in the twilight zone where optics mean nothing?” says Paulsen in the email. “There are peaceful protesters who are rightfully angry.”
Paulsen continued, asking questions about who the decision-makers are in Pocatello.
“That display is awful and shows a clear flippancy, or flat-out hostility, to Pocatellans about the seriousness of the situation,” said Paulsen. “Who made that decision? Constituents are demanding answers, and I am too.”
Records do not show Paulsen receiving a response from the mayor or the police chief.
Damage control
Other city officials, including Public Works Director Jeff Mansfield, were seemingly concerned about the situation.
In a text conversation between Paulsen and Mansfield from April 7, the two seemingly talk about the graphic video that circulated, taken by reporting party Brad Andres, of Perez being shot by officers.
Paulsen: “Did you watch the video of the shooting…on the Pocatello subreddit…I emailed Blad this morning asking if we’re having a meeting because it’s bad. Maybe that’s what Thursday is about.”
Mansfield: “I saw it circulating. It’s definitely what Thursday is going to be about.”
Misinformation?
Information revealed in the documents seems to indicate that officials were frustrated with witnesses and individuals related to the shooting speaking to the media.
In a text message exchange on April 10, Schei messages an unknown person, expressing frustration about a man named Brad, believed to be Brad Andres, one of the reporting parties that called the police before the Perez shooting.
“Brad is continuing to change his story. When are we going to come out against this narrative? I think we need to asap,” says Schei. “Maybe the release today can say there are multiple accounts of what information was relayed. For an accurate account, here is the 911 recording and the transcript.”
Andres told EastIdahoNews.com on April 7 that he and his son saw Perez swinging a knife around, but said it didn’t seem like any of his relatives were scared of him. They then noticed Perez on the ground with a log next to him. He said he assumed someone threw it at him and described it as “sketchy” before deciding to call the police and report it.
“It looked sketchy. There’s a knife, there’s things in danger, so my son made the correct call to call 911 with the goal of helping his neighbor with this situation,” said Brad in April. “Dispatch may have exaggerated something, because this wasn’t a knife fight. Nobody would have been stabbed. Nobody was in immediate danger.”
Also in the documents, it appears that Blad was given false information that Perez’s condition was improving, which he told a group of people. He then corrected himself.
In a text message chain between city officials on April 12, a person appearing to be Blad states, “I wanted to let you know that I have found out what I told you on Thursday was incorrect regarding the Perez shooting,” says the text. “I just has a phone call from the chief that they have removed life support and he has since passed.”
The text message is signed “Brian.”
Questions that went answered
The City of Pocatello issued a news release on April 10 that provided some detail about the shooting and investigation.
According to emails between Irby, Blad, Schei, and Mayor and City Council Administrative Services Manager Anne Nichols, the group had prepared a list of 18 questions and answers about the context behind the shooting. The list included that Pocatello Police officers had responded to the Perez house twice in the past, but none of the officers who responded on April 5 had been to the house before.
The police department and city of Pocatello later held a news conference on April 17, where the 911 call and body camera footage from two of the four responding officers was released to the public.
According to text messages between Nichols, Blad, and the City Council, Blad had been planning to answer the questions publicly but changed his mind after the city was served with a lawsuit by Perez’s family for wrongful death and civil rights violations.
Pocatello police had previously visited the Perez’ home
First visit
According to court documents obtained by EastIdahoNews.com as part of a second records request, officers were called to Perez’s home on Dec. 2, 2024, after a report that Perez, who is described in the reports as a “mentally disabled juvenile,” had battered a relative in the home.
Police reports indicate that officers and dispatch had a difficult time communicating with the family due to a language barrier. When they arrived, they saw that Perez was allegedly been holding a woman down on the floor by grabbing her hair.
Officers de-escalated the situation and handcuffed Perez to detain him while they investigated.
Court documents say the family told officers that Perez is “mentally disabled and suddenly became violent.” The family also stated that Perez has a history of violent outbursts.
They noted that they had just moved to Pocatello from Chicago and that while at their last home, Perez had strangled a female relative.
The family told officers that Perez had not had access to his medications for a couple of months, and they believed the aggression was a result of that.
Second visit
On March 1, 2025, Pocatello police were called to the home after Perez’s grandfather said he was “having trouble controlling his autistic grandson.”
When officers arrived, the family stated they needed help figuring out how to manage Perez, as he “had some trouble at school.”
Officers tried to talk to Perez, but learned he was non-verbal. According to police reports, when officers asked him what was happening, Perez “would make two fists and cross (his) hands at (his) wrists as if to tell me to take (him) to jail.”
The officer said he would not be taking him to jail.
Perez’s relatives told officers that they had received a letter from the school regarding Perez’s behavior, but the letter is redacted in police reports.
The family asked police to take Perez to the hospital, but officers declined, saying they could not transport him because there was no medical emergency.
Officers suggested the family take him to the hospital to “see if they could get (Perez) assistance with either someone come in to assist with them or (Perez) going to a facility that is more capable of taking care of (him).”
The report was forwarded to Child Protective Services to see if they could visit the home to evaluate Perez.
Police were also called about Perez by the Department of Health and Welfare at least two other times regarding his health, but to a home on North 9th Avenue, not the home on Harrison Avenue.
Police conduct
In the documents received by EastIdahoNews.com, it is clear that many concerned citizens had questions about less lethal weapons available to Pocatello officers. According to the question and answer list included in the request, officers have access to pepper spray, collapsible batons, less lethal shotguns with bean bag rounds and tasers.
As for de-escalation training for the officers, the documents state that Pocatello officers undergo 40 hours of crisis intervention team (CIT) training and “review policy in squad meetings and during use of force training.”
According to Blad, there is a pending investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force, with the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office as the lead investigating agency. When the investigation is complete, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office will conduct a review of the findings to determine if criminal charges will be filed against the officers.
The law firm of Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy (BNCL), representing the family of Victor Perez, will be holding a “Truth and Reconciliation Conference” on June 27 and June 28. The conference will take place over the course of two public meetings, where people from the surrounding area can speak their mind about what happened to Perez, or share their own experiences with police officers.
