Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad addresses public concerns regarding recent officer-involved shooting

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - After a recent officer-involved shooting that's creating outrage in the southeast Idaho community, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad has released a statement addressing the incident and the public's concerns.

Blad says the Pocatello community has experienced a tragic event, which has his full attention. He assures the community that his office and the City Council are not taking what happened lightly.

"We are addressing this matter with the seriousness and thoroughness it deserves and with the appropriate respect for the gravity of the situation," said Blad. "The criminal, external, and internal investigations regarding the officer-involved shooting are underway, which is why we cannot answer questions out of concern of interfering with or compromising the investigation."

For Mayor Blad's full video statement, click HERE.

Mayor Blad has faced increased online criticism in the days following the officer-involved shooting, which left a non-verbal 17-year-old with autism and cerebral palsy, Victor Perez, in critical condition.

In the days following the shooting, the Pocatello Police Department has refused to answer questions about the incident and subsequent investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force. During a brief press conference, Police Chief Roger Schei confirmed some of the details his officers were told leading up to the incident, including that Perez had a large kitchen knife and that police were told the 17-year-old was intoxicated.

For more details on Chief Schei's comments, click HERE.

Local News 8 has reached out repeatedly to the Pocatello Police Department for further comment, including a public records request for body camera footage from the responding officers. Those requests have been denied.

In his statement, Mayor Blad did confirm that the four officers involved in the incident were immediately placed on administrative leave following the incident. He says the city will release the police body camera footage in the coming weeks.

"We truly recognize the difficulty and pain of this situation," said Blad. "Everyone is looking for answers, including me and the City Council. That is why it is important to let the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force and others complete their investigations."

Blad says no determinations will be made until the independent investigators have done their job. Once the investigations are complete, he says the city will act in accordance with the findings.

"Right now, our thoughts are with the Perez family, the neighborhood residents who witnessed the interaction, our entire community, and all members of the Pocatello Police Department. It will take a very long time for all of us to find normalcy, but our hope is we can find a way to move forward and build a stronger community together," said Blad.

50501 Movment plans protest in support of Victor Perez

According to his family, 17-year-old Victor Perez is currently in a coma and hooked up to a ventilator. They say doctors are testing his brain function, but the 17-year-old has died twice and had to be revived.

As videos capturing the moments that led to the shooting have spread like wildfire online, the community of Pocatello has responded in outrage. The day following the shooting incident, dozens of protestors gathered in front of the Pocatello Police Department to voice their support for the teenage shooting victim and their indignation at the officer's response to the situation.

For more information on the initial protest, click HERE.

Members of the Pocatello community have organized another protest, scheduled for Saturday, April 19, from 4 PM to 6 PM, in partnership with the 50501 movement. As of 4 PM, April 10, over 90 people have expressed interest in supporting the event over Facebook.

"We saw a vulgar misuse of power from the Pocatello police department," the protest organizers wrote on Facebook. "We are gathering to DEMAND! Punishment for the officers involved and DEMAND funds be taken from hefty police budgets and be allocated to crisis intervention programs and trained therapists to work alongside the police. These police aren’t trained in de-escalation, so if we want to see change, we need to show up and show out to demand change!"