Autistic Teen Killed by Police in Idaho

And we absolutely must find a way to stop this from ever happening again.

This is a post I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write. It’s a post I shouldn’t have to write. On Saturday, April 12, 2025, 17 year-old Victor Perez died after being taken off life support. Perez, who underwent multiple surgeries last week, including a leg amputation, was ultimately declared brain dead, leading his family to the excruciatingly difficult decision. But although Victor is no longer with us, his story remains, and it is my sincere hope and prayer that it spawns legislative action to put measures in place to prevent it from happening again.

According to multiple reports, Victor was a nonverbal, autistic teen who also suffered from cerebral palsy. KTVB in Boise and a host of other news outlets have reported the events that led to Victor’s death as follows. On Saturday, April 5, 2025, officers arrived at Victor’s Pocatello, Idaho home in response to a 911 call that alleged an individual at the property was holding a knife, and was trying to stab people in his backyard. The caller also suggested that the individual may be intoxicated. When the police arrived, they found Victor sitting on the ground holding a knife, in a fenced front yard. The disturbing video shows four police officers running to the fence with guns drawn, commanding Victor to drop his weapon. What the officers didn’t know is that Victor was mentally disabled, and - according to multiple reports - also could not speak English. Victor stands up and begins to approach the officers, and the police open fire. Victor was shot nine times, with the shots continuing even after he was lying on the ground. The disturbing video (and warning, it is VERY disturbing) shows Victor being shot within mere seconds of the officers’ arrival (I counted 17 seconds from the time the cruisers arrived on the scene to the time police opened fire). The video shows no attempt by the officers to deescalate the situation, or use alternative means of subduing Victor, such as a taser.

I am always cautious about prejudging the circumstances of a situation that I did not personally witness. However, the video in this case seems pretty clear (I did watch a longer clip of the incident that showed the entire shooting, but that appears to have been taken down). Also, the Pocatello police have not issued any statement alleging that they did attempt to deescalate the situation, or that they attempted to use alternative means of containment before resorting to what should always be the last resort, a shooting. Now of course, I fully understand that there are instances when that last resort must be the first option. When the life of an officer or another individual is in immediate and grave danger, you don’t have time to think twice. You either shoot, or someone dies. But the video I watched does not appear to depict that kind of situation. Again, there was a fence between Victor and the officers, and Victor was holding a knife, not a gun. So even assuming that the officers believed Victor intended to stab them, I’m not quite sure how shooting him nine times was the only option on the table, or why - as has also been widely reported - they continued shooting after he was lying on the ground and clearly no longer a threat.

I’ll admit, this one has affected me very deeply and personally. As the father of a 13 year-old boy with vaccine-induced autism, I can’t help but think that this could have been him. The investigation is still ongoing, and maybe the bodycam footage tells a different story. But from the video evidence that is now available, and the first-hand accounts of Victor’s family members who were present at the scene, it appears that an innocent young man with multiple disabilities was shot (and ultimately killed) because he happened to be holding a knife. His family members are adamant that he was not trying to stab them, and in fact posed no threat of harm to anyone in the yard that day. If you watched the video, you can see that he did not appear to be anywhere close to stabbing another individual when the officers arrived. I don’t know how he got the knife, or why he was holding it in the yard. But what I do know is that something went terribly wrong that day, and we need to do something to make sure that it never happens again.

I’ve already made attempts to make contact with the family, to offer them the pro bono legal assistance of We The Patriots USA. While our organization does “Back the Blue”, we also have an overarching mission to fight government overreach and abuses of power. We Back the Blue when - as is the case with most officers - they are upholding their oaths to adhere to the U.S. Constitution. But we don’t Back the Blue when they are arresting people for not wearing a mask or for using a playground (by the way, thank you AG Labrador for moving to dismiss those charges). We don’t Back the Blue when they are arresting people for failing to adhere to an unconstitutional lockdown order (congratulations to our friend Shelley Luther, who was recently elected to the Texas legislature). And we certainly don’t Back the Blue when their lives or the lives of others are not in immediate danger, but they nevertheless shoot first and ask questions later (again, I’ll reserve final judgment as to whether that happened here until I have all of the evidence).

I’m also going to be personally reaching out to my legislators in Idaho to propose a bill to strengthen training for law enforcement in the state, to require that all officers follow a strict protocol to assess whether an individual has a mental disability if a suspect refuses to respond to commands. Penalties for excessive force in these situations must be severe. Obviously, there is no time for assessment when an individual is pointing a gun at an officer or another individual, or otherwise posing an immediate threat to life. But short of that, an officer cannot assume that everyone who does not follow his or her commands is being defiant. I know that my law enforcement and former LEO readers will scoff at my suggestions, which sound ignorant, and clearly derived from someone who has never worn a badge. But the sad reality is that this isn’t your grandfather’s or even your father’s world anymore. With the explosion of children and adults now living with autism and other mental disabilities, the truth is that there is a significant portion of the population who truly cannot understand an officer’s commands, or cannot process them in time to respond appropriately. In a press conference with President Trump last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reported that the rate of autism is now about one in 31, up from one in 10,000 when he was a child. So if one in 31 people is living with a disorder that may make them unable to respond to simple commands, it is simply unacceptable for police to be using the same protocol that was in place when only one out of every 10,000 individuals were living with the condition.

It’s a cruel sort of irony that this tragedy occurred during the month of April, which also happens to be Autism Awareness Month. Incidents like this are on the rise, and they underscore the dire need for us to find the cause. Secretary Kennedy says that we should have the answer by September, and I think that’s realistic given the mountain of evidence that already exists showing a link between vaccines and autism. If you don’t believe me, read this excellent deep dive on vaccine-induced aluminum toxicity in the brains of autistic individuals by my friend J.B. Handley (and please subscribe to his blog, where he has many more articles on the link between vaccines and autism). Once we know the cause, we can take decisive action to greatly reduce its incidence. Mr. Kennedy, Victor Perez has reminded us all that we need this now more than ever. For me, and for my son, September can’t come soon enough.