A police officer killed an Idaho man in his backyard after mistaking him for someone who was wanted by the police, officials said on Monday, announcing an investigation into the shooting.
The police did not identify the victim or the police officer who shot him. The Idaho Falls Police Department said the pursued man was later found hiding in a shed, where he was arrested.
The police officer was put on administrative leave, and Chief Bryce Johnson called the case “incredibly tragic,” the police department said in a statement. Police spokeswoman Jessica Clements said on Tuesday that the department will not release the names of the victim or the police officer until the initial stages of the investigation are completed and that the victim’s family has requested that his name not be released.
In its statement, the police department said the Idaho State Police would conduct an investigation into the shooting, which took place in Idaho Falls, a city of about 63,000 people about 250 miles east of Boise. After the investigation, the case will be sent to the Bonneville County prosecutor’s office to determine possible charges.
The statement also said that the Idaho Falls Police Department would conduct a separate internal investigation to determine whether its policies were followed.
The police officer wore a body camera that was turned on during the shooting and this footage will be part of the investigation, the department said. The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office identified the arrested man as Tanner JN Shoesmith, 22, and said he was arrested in a county jail because of pending warrants and a misdemeanor for resisting the arrest.
The shooting occurred shortly after midnight on Monday, just minutes after an assistant to the Bonneville County sheriff attempted to stop traffic due to a broken taillight in Idaho Falls.
The vehicle stopped at a corner and a man fled to a residential neighborhood, police said. A woman remained in the car and spoke to the sheriff’s deputies, officials said.
The deputy then communicated over the radio that the man had fled, providing directions and a description of his clothes, including a black shirt.
Officers from the Idaho Falls Police Department and the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office arrived and started looking for the man.
One resident told a police officer that the man had crossed a courtyard and “that they believed the suspect had a gun,” the police said. The officer passed this information on to others.
As the search continued, the police said the authorities identified the man as someone with “multiple arrest warrants”, including for criminal assault on a police officer, resisting or obstructing the arrest and providing false information to the authorities.
The woman in the car showed police officers a message that allowed them to track the man’s location on the GPS, showing that he was in the yard of a nearby residence, police said.
“Police and deputies surrounded the residence and the yard to prevent the suspect from escaping,” said the department. He added that the police arrived with their weapons drawn because of the complaint that he might be armed and because of his “previous history of violence when interacting with police officers”.
The police then heard screams and approached the yard, where they found a man wearing a black shirt and holding a gun.
The department said police officers told him to drop the gun. At some point during the confrontation, one of the policemen shot the man.
“Currently, we don’t have the answers as to what exactly happened during those moments,” said Chief Johnson. Police and emergency medical personnel from the fire department tried to save the man but were unsuccessful, he said.
The police later learned that the victim was not the man they were looking for, but a resident of the address.
“There are no words to express how heavy our hearts are today,” Chief Johnson said in the statement. “This situation is devastatingly tragic for the family, for the officer and for those who love and care about them.”
After the shooting, an area policeman reported seeing another man running nearby. The police found him “hidden in a shed in the backyard” and arrested him, police said.
In all, the episode, from the traffic stop to the shooting and arrest, lasted about 20 minutes.