Community members express grief to city council over Victor Perez shooting

POCATELLO – The Pocatello City Council got an earful from residents expressing sorrow and anger over the death of 17-year-old Victor Perez on Thursday.

About 50 members of the public stayed at Pocatello’s city council meeting to hear from 10 residents who spoke about the police shooting of Perez on April 5 and the tremendous fallout the community has seen since. The speakers utilized the public comment section, that comes at the end of every council meeting.

Protesters with signs ringed the edges of the meeting as residents spoke.

“Justice needs to be done, and I will protest. I will be out here protesting until something is done,” said Sheena Goldsberry, to the applause of the audience. “We’ll continue to come to these meetings … and protest for Victor and his family and every (child) in this community.”

“Unless you wanna kill us too,” an audience member said.

Another audience member added, “until they’re in prison.”

“I will die for my kids. They need justice too,” Goldsberry finished, to more applause.

As expected, the conversation was one-sided. City council members are not allowed to comment on issues brought forward in the public comment section. Additionally, the city has also expressed it can not comment further on the situation due to the investigation by the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Taskforce and pending litigation.

The people who spoke to the city council varied in age and came from many backgrounds. Many of them called Perez’s death a “murder.”

Perez, who suffered from cerebral palsy and mental deficiencies, was shot nine times by four police officers after police received a report of an intoxicated man waving a large kitchen knife at family members. Video of the shooting has been widely spread around the world on social media and by news agencies. Perez died of his injuries on April 12.

“I’m here today to voice my extreme disgust by the very public murder of Victor Perez by the Pocatello Police Department and advocate for justice,” said Mathew Shumway, who called the incident, “a microcosm for numerous social, moral and constitutional failures perpetuated by … Idaho law enforcement in general.”

“Police officers represent the state. They have a very serious and important responsibility as a result. If the role of law enforcement is to be in our communities at all, they must be able to use deadly force as rarely as possible,” Shumway said.

Some of the people who spoke were parents of autistic children. One of the was Goldsberry, saying that she has three children with autism and ADHD.

“I’m worried about if they have meltdowns like Victor did, what’s going to happen? Are they going to get shot too?” Goldsberry asked.

Erin Vossler, who introduced herself as a nontraditional student at Idaho State University, fought back tears as she addressed the council.

“The Pocatello Police Department should be ashamed of their actions. There were alternative methods available. They could have used anything. They could have subdued him, with their bulletproof vests. They could have,” Vossler said.

Amber Marsh, who said that she herself is autistic, gave a “call to action” to the council.

“My demands for the City Council is that the four police officers that murdered Victor Perez are arrested and charged with murder, and also their names are released to the public,” Marsh said. “That’s what your community wants. We want justice for Victor Perez, and we demand it, and we won’t stop until we get that. Justice needs to prevail, and Victor Perez needs justice.”

In a news conference earlier on Thursday, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and Police Chief Roger Schei expressed their condolences to the family and the community. Blad said he hopes the community will be able to “find ways to move forward.”

“I recognize it’s going to take a very long time for our community to heal from this, if we ever really truly heal from this, but it is also my belief that as we work together, we will indeed build a stronger Pocatello,” Blad said.

Watch the entire city council meeting here.