POCATELLO — The family of the 17-year-old disabled boy Pocatello police fatally shot during an incident on April 5 has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city.

Speaking in Spanish, the grandfather of the late Victor Perez, Luis Alicea, had his words interpreted through a translator alongside his attorneys James Cook and John Burris of the California-based Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy law firm. Alicea spoke about how he is coping with the tragic incident and his attorneys talked about why the lawsuit was filed during a press conference at Dude’s Public Market in downtown Pocatello Thursday evening.

Alicea said he wants justice and does not have words to express the trauma and shock of the incident where his grandson, “who was not a monster,” was killed in front of family members outside their home. Alicea said images and the memory of the incident keep coming back to him and that his home has become an unlivable place because everyone is angry.

The 12-page lawsuit alleging excessive use of force as well as violations of Perez’s Fourth Amendment and 14th Amendment rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho Thursday. It alleges Pocatello police officers were deliberately indifferent to Perez’s constitutional rights in their response to the incident.

“We today have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Pocatello Police Department on behalf of Victor Perez,” Burris said at Thursday’s press conference. “In our view, Perez’s civil rights were violated. He was shot and killed by Pocatello police officers under circumstances that were clearly unjustified and uncalled for.”

Four Pocatello police officers responding to a possible domestic disturbance used excessive force in shooting Perez, a nonverbal autistic child with cerebral palsy, nine times outside his family’s North Harrison Avenue home within moments of arrival, according to the lawsuit.

Pocatello police have previously said three of the responding officers discharged their handguns and the fourth fired a shotgun with bean bag ammunition meant to incapacitate.

Burris described the incident as shocking, outrageous and the equivalent of manslaughter.

The officers did not attempt to de-escalate the situation before shooting Perez, who was holding a knife but posed no immediate threat behind a chain-link fence, the suit alleges.

Perez was removed from life support at Portneuf Medical Center after being fatally shot in front of his grandfather, mother, sister and aunt, who suffered emotional distress by witnessing “the reckless conduct of the involved officers by their negligent infliction of emotional distress,” according to the suit. Perez died on April 12 and was laid to rest on April 15.

“Perez endured conscious pain and suffering prior to his death, proximately caused by the excessive and unjustified use of deadly force,” the suit states.

Pocatello police had prior notice of Perez’s disabilities from incidents on Dec. 2, 2024, and Feb. 25, 2025, with officers documenting that he was “somewhat non-verbal” and that his family “required Spanish communication,” according to the suit.

“The video of the shooting showed what looked like a firing squad of police officers who gunned Mr. Perez down in cold blood,” said Ben Nisenbaum, an attorney for Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy. “(There were) so many gunshots. They were lined up. They were literally shoulder to shoulder against him. You could tell that his family didn’t feel significantly threatened by him. They were trying to knock the knife out of his hand with a long stick. That’s what they’ve been trying to do. These police officers are going to run up and just blow him away in front of them. It’s not acceptable. That is criminal and that’s why it ought to be investigated that way. We’re very comfortable that when the litigation is over, we will have shown that these officers violated not just Mr. Perez’s civil rights, but also his family’s rights. They all suffered terribly from seeing what happened to Mr. Perez, and it was a kid. He was 17-years-old, and the idea that he was in some kind of shape, that he was going to bound over the fence, he didn’t even try to, but the officers all seemed to be in great shape. It really is just completely disproportionate.”

The suit includes references to Idaho’s Peace Officer Standards and Training curriculum and alleges that the Pocatello police policies and training were inadequate, leading to the violation of Perez’s rights.

Perez’s family seek an unspecified amount of general and special damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, injunctive relief and costs. A jury trial is demanded.

The Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy law firm, which gained notoriety after representing clients such as the late Rodney King in his case against Los Angeles police, is working locally with Jennifer Call, a Pocatello attorney with Snake River Criminal Defense who was the Democratic candidate for Bannock County prosecutor in the election this past November.

Call spoke about getting justice for the Perez family and how this lawsuit could put pressure on Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador to criminally charge the officers involved in the shooting. The East Idaho Critical Incident task force is currently investigating the officers’ use of force and will provide its findings to Labrador upon the investigation’s conclusion.

“Once the investigation is over, Mr. Labrador is going to make the decision if charges are brought or not,” Call said. “I’ve done some research, and in the past 20 years in Idaho, from what I could find, there’s only been two police officers actually charged in a killing on the job, and one you may remember was just a few years ago with a man in his backyard in Idaho Falls who was shot. So there’s only been two cases in 20 years, and both of those cases have wound up in dismissals, where the state’s ultimately dismissed the charges. So it’s pretty rare. It’s up to Raul Labrador, but we’d like to put pressure on him to do the right thing and actually bring charges, criminal charges.”

Thursday’s press conference was the second the California-based law firm held locally after one in April at Gate City Coffee in downtown Pocatello.

When reached on Friday, City of Pocatello spokesperson Marlise Irby declined to provide a statement about Thursday’s press conference or the lawsuit citing a city policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad and Police Chief Roger Schei held a news conference at City Hall on April 17 where they expressed sorrow and condolences to Perez’s family over the incident and discussed its profound impact on the city.

Immediately after the city’s April news conference, Pocatello police differed in how they have typically handled similar incidents by releasing a 10-minute video chronicling the entire incident involving Perez. The video included the 911 call made by witnesses about the physical disturbance outside Perez’s family’s home, police dispatch radio traffic to the responding officers, footage from a nearby security camera that captured the disturbance involving Perez and family members outside their residence, the arrival of police and graphic police body camera footage from two of the four officers involved in the shooting.

The incident sparked peaceful protests in Pocatello and Boise lamenting how Pocatello police responded and demanding justice for Perez.

The attorneys representing Perez’s family will hold what’s being described as a Truth and Reconciliation Conference in the Little Wood River Room at Idaho State University’s Pond Student Union building from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m on Saturday, June 28.

“This conference is based on the South African Post-Apartheid model wherein South Africans were provided a forum to testify about their experiences in a forum without judgement or fear of retribution in an ordered and moderated setting,” stated a news release from the law firm. “The conference will allow Pocatello citizens and members of the Fort Hall Reservation to voice concerns regarding the Victor Perez shooting as well as any other community-related issues. Another goal of the conference is to match attorneys with citizens and reservation members who need representation.”

The City of Pocatello has 21 days to respond to the suit.

Idaho State Journal reporter Taylor Calder contributed to this article.