June 7, 2025
Dear Editor,
We can’t unsee what we saw. It’s been a little over a month since that fateful Saturday evening when the Pocatello Police responded to a call at the Victor Perez family home. A call that none of us can unsee, because it was caught on camera, put on Facebook, that shows the shooting of a 17 year old child. WE CAN NOT UNSEE that.
My first reaction was like most other folk, shock and disbelief, as I saw the Facebook video depicting Victor laying on the ground, with a knife in his hand, and his family trying to get him under control.
The next thing, was the first Police Officer arriving, getting out of his car, reaching for his gun, then being joined by three other officers, forming a line, closing the distance (with a fence between them), Victor getting up, with his arms out, going towards the fence, then the shots! All within 18 seconds of the police officer’s arrival. Wow! We cannot unsee that.
I have some very serious questions and others have suggested some as well. Thursday of the next week I was on a panel on KID Radio in Idaho Falls with the Idaho Falls Captain of Police and others. My question was simple. Is that the training being provided to our young police officers by the Police Academies? To close the distance and shoot first? The second was, aren’t they taught de-escalation techniques anymore?
The answer was no, that’s not the way our officers are being trained.
So during this time I was visiting several old school police officers who learned how to de-escalate situations in the past. Tribal, State, and one Federal officer.
One suggested another perspective, Victor knew the Police and liked them. This was backed by a channel 8 news report recently that said the Pocatello Police responded to Victor’s home on at least two occasions, so he questioned “What if Victor was running to them for help”? I didn’t even think about that.
So about two weeks after Victor was shot I was having lunch with a Social Worker who had an experience in the past with calling the police to help de-escalate a situation with her client. They are afraid for the client to call the police now. Remember none can unsee what we saw.
That’s a real problem. When people who normally work with the police are afraid to call them, then we have a real problem.
Because if those professionals are afraid to call the police, what about the 1.2 million regular people who saw the video? What about those poor souls who shot the video? We can’t unsee what we saw.
So where do we go from here? I have always felt if you bring up a problem, then be willing to help give a solution to the problem. By the way the solution was suggested by the same social worker. Here it goes. Retrain all the officers in the region in de-escalation so we can trust the police again.
I would like to see a three day conference at the Fort Hall Hotel/ Casino with an inter-agency, Local, County, State, and Federal Police training approach on de-escalation. Wow, imagine the law enforcement agencies being trained, or in many cases, being retrained on how to talk people down, something most police officers are trained in already.
We have some of the best Police Academies in our area. Idaho State University, Eastern Idaho Community College, all of whom can put together great training for our officers. Why three days, it might be able to be done in two, so all shifts can attend.
I think we as citizens give our police the benefit of the doubt, are willing to support our police officers, and we want them to get proper training and back them in relearning what they need to do.
I don’t carry a badge or a gun with the authority that goes with it. It’s not our lives on the lines, it’s theirs. We all want police officers to make it home every night, unhurt.
I also want trained police officers so we can hold them and their commands responsible. Watching Police Officers reaching for their guns, forming a line, closing the space, and shooting within 18 seconds is not how our officers should be trained. Teaching or in most cases re-training them on de-escalation is important. Time, Distance, De-escalation. Because we can’t unsee what we saw.
