Police cleared in April deaths
Charges will not be filed against officers involved in two police-related deaths in April.
The Ada County Prosecutor’s Office evaluated the separate incidents and released its findings at a news conference Thursday.
In the first incident, Bannock County deputies responded on April 14 to a gunshot fired in a house in McCammon. Kevin Buzzell wouldn’t come out of the house at first. At one point, he fired a shot through a window in the direction of the deputies.
Buzzell eventually came out of the house, but was holding a rifle. The deputies told him to put it down, and Buzzell instead pointed it at one of them, at which the deputies fired at him several times.
Buzzell sustained three gunshot wounds – to the hand, chest and abdomen, respectively – and later died of his injuries.
The second incident occurred on April 24, when a man called law enforcement saying there was an intruder in his Pocatello home. When police responded, they found Kevin Benglan rolling on the ground amid broken glass.
He struggled against officers when they tried to arrest him and was Tased. He fell, but still continued to struggle, and Pocatello officers used the Taser on him three more times. After they subdued him, he was sent to the hospital, but Benglan died on the way.
The toxicology report lists methamphetamine as the cause of death.
