Officer involved shooting investigation complete
The case has been turned over to Bonneville County Prosecutor Daniel Clark to determine if any charges should be filed.
In a statement, Idaho Falls Police reviewed the case Friday:
“On Tuesday, January 23rd at 2:04 PM, Idaho Falls public safety dispatch received a call about a suspicious adult male near the intersection of South Blvd. & Elm Street. Two Idaho Falls Police officers attempted to talk with the man, but he fled to a residential apartment building near North Corner Ave. & Elm Street. When officers attempted to apprehend the suspect, the man displayed a weapon. One officer fired upon the suspect. Officers immediately began performing CPR on the man until emergency medical services arrived.
The incident lasted only 22 minutes, from the time the call came in to police to the time the man was transported to the hospital by ambulance.
At an incident briefing on Wednesday, January 24th, Chief Bryce Johnson named the person involved in the shooting. “The citizen, the person involved in the shooting, his name is Shane McVey. He is deceased. He was pronounced by medical shortly after the incident occurred,” said Johnson.
On Friday, January 26th, Idaho Falls Police released the names of the involved. Officer Earl Laughter III fired upon the suspect and Sergeant Patrick McKenna was present during the incident.
Chief Johnson described the process which would take place and the various agencies involved. “Quite quickly, because the Idaho State Police are so quick to respond with us, we asked them if they could take the lead on the investigation along with the [Eastern Idaho Regional] Critical Incident Task Force, so they [ISP] will take the lead on that investigation. What will happen is they will complete that investigation and that investigation will be turned over to the Bonneville County Prosecuting Attorney, Mr. Clark, and he will review the investigation and he will make some sort of decision of what occurred. That comes out of his office,” explained Johnson.
“When all of that is completed, the Idaho Falls Police Department will also do an independent internal review of the incident to review all of our policy and procedures and to see what occurred. The way that process is set out is there is a Use of Force Review Board… which is made up of different officers in the department, both ranking officers and line officers, and is also comprised of two civilians that are not part of the police department. We [will] present the internal review to this Board. The Board will use that and make a recommendation to me. At the conclusion of that, I will take all of that information and make a final review for the police department.”
“As you can see, this process is as transparent as it possibly can be, it’s fair, it ensures procedural justice for everybody involved,” said Johnson. “It does take a little bit of time, though. It doesn’t get done in two or three days. It will take a little bit of time. So as I spoke with the family, I explained to them that it takes a little time and they were happy to wait that time it takes to find out all of the information.”
Johnson requested, “So what we ask for is also for the community, for you, to allow that time to pass so the investigators can get all of the information and we can get those answers out for you.”
No further information is available at this time and no further information is expected to be released until the steps outlined by Chief Johnson have been completed.
