POCATELLO – The lawyers representing the family of Victor Perez held a vigil on Saturday for the teen, one year after he was shot by local police and later died from his injuries.
The event, held in the yard where Perez was shot, started with a prayer from Pastor Mike Conner of the First United Methodist Church in Pocatello.
“As we hold vigil on this sacred ground — ground marked by love and loyalty, by bullets and blood — we remember your cherished child Victor Perez,” Conner prayed. “We seek to honor Victor, and those who love him, through our presence, our stories and our tears.”
“We continue to lament that Victor’s life was taken from us so quickly, so needlessly and so brutally,” Conner continued. “For many, it has been a long year of sorrow, frustration and unsatisfying answers.”
Attorneys representing Perez’s family then addressed the crowd. The family is represented by Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry and Lacy — a California-based national law firm practicing in all areas of civil rights, with a focus on police misconduct and racial discrimination cases, according to its website.
“Victor’s life mattered,” firm founder John Burris said. “Even though he had special kinds of conditions, that is no reason for us not to care and value his life. His life, in our view, was taken wrongfully in circumstances that were not justified.”
On April 5, 2025, four Pocatello police officers were dispatched to a report of a disturbance involving a man who was “brandishing” a knife. Reports say the officers fired shots at Perez less than 20 seconds after arriving on the scene, as he stood up and moved toward them while holding a knife.
The officers, who were separated from Perez by a fence, shot him 12 times, and one of the officers fired a less-lethal beanbag round from a shotgun. Perez, who was 17 years old and had autism and cerebral palsy, died a week later at Portneuf Medical Center after doctors amputated his leg and later declared him clinically brain dead.
“I want to be able to say, before we leave this case, that we have at least presented to the (police) department a plan — a plan to retrain its officers on how to deal with, how to approach, how to save the lives not only of the officers, but certainly the persons they make contact with,” Buriss said.
Attorney James Cook also spoke at the vigil.
“Please take note of this: About a week and a half ago, we just filed a lawsuit, a class-action suit, against (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Minneapolis,” Cook said. “We were just there; we held a similar press conference. I can’t help but notice the parallels — a lot of the discrimination and the biased policing against Latinos in Minneapolis. This is a microcosm of that.”
Cook said the litigation around Perez’s death is still in its early stages. Typically, for federal civil rights cases, he said it can take up to a year or a year and a half.
Jennifer Call, a Pocatello attorney representing the Perez family, told EastIdahoNews.com the case is currently in the discovery process, where evidence is exchanged. Next, negotiations will start, and the case will be assigned a judge.
During the speeches Saturday, Luis Alicea, Victor Perez’s grandfather, quietly stood by the lawyers. EastIdahoNews.com asked if he had any comments, and he declined.
This article was originally published by Cody Roberts with East Idaho News
