A report clearing Boise police in high-profile shooting came out 3 months ago. No one knew
Three Boise Police Department officers were justified in firing their weapons in the high-profile shooting of an East African refugee in June 2021, according to a city report, but two of the four officers present did not turn on their body cameras, a violation of police policy.
The findings are part of a report into the shooting of Mohamud Hassan Mkoma, although he is never named. The law enforcement officers also are not named. The Idaho Statesman was able to match details from the report to the unique circumstances involving Mkoma’s case.
The report was one of six that were filed stealthily over the past three months by the city’s Office of Police Accountability on shootings and incidents dating to 2016. The findings of these reports never were publicized by the city.
Director Jesus Jara said the vagueness of the reports is mandated. The ordinance creating the accountability office requires that no names or identifying information of anyone involved be included. Jara also said it’s not a goal to disseminate the reports, and he acknowledged that their nebulous nature could sometimes make it difficult for the public to know which incident a report is referencing.
“If that’s the case, in my mind, we met our goal,” Jara said. “We’re trying to make sure people don’t know.”
The review of the Mkoma shooting is dated Dec. 27, but no public statement was made about it or any of the recent reports — three at the end of December, one at the end of January and two at the end of February. Jara told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday that he has no plans to announce the release of any investigation completed by the Office of Police Accountability, whose stated goal is to increase transparency and accountability in internal investigations of law enforcement.
“We don’t plan on trying to make this something of a news item,” Jara said.
The Statesman was made aware of the completion of these six reports during Jara’s presentation before the Boise City Council on Tuesday. The other five reports relate to incidents from 2016 to 2020.
Report affirms Boise Police’s account of Mkoma shooting
Details of the report on the Mkoma incident, which refer to a shooting “in the summer of 2021,” match previous accounts found in police reports and court documents.
On June 27, authorities suspected Mkoma of abducting his teenage son — in violation of a no-contact order — and were in the process of issuing an Amber Alert when his vehicle was located at a gas station in Northwest Boise, according to Jara’s report. An officer identified as Sergeant No. 1 called dispatch and tried to make contact with Mkoma, but he fled.
Officers said they could see a child and a weapon in Mkoma’s vehicle, and attempted to stop him by using lights and sirens, the report said. The vehicle did not stop, and officers performed a PIT maneuver (pursuit intervention technique) — a move that immobilizes a vehicle by striking it from the side.
A news release from the city in June said that officers fired their weapons “due to the immediate danger presented by the suspect.” In subsequent charging documents, prosecutors said Mkoma brandished a knife at the child.
The Office of Police Accountability report mostly echoes this, and of the 10 conclusions in its report, eight state that the police at the scene were “exonerated” for use of deadly force and for their actions related to the pursuit of Mkoma’s vehicle.
The two conclusions that do not clear the officers are that Sergeant No. 1 and Officer No. 3 did not activate their body cameras. The office noted this to be a violation of department policy, but the report does not have the effect of a legal review. There are no other mentions of violations, and the report also says that Sergeant No. 1 tried to turn on his body camera, but the power button “was not depressed long enough to activate.”
As Mkoma eluded police from the gas station, he “began waving a large knife outside the driver’s window,” according to the report. After the PIT maneuver, three officers who had joined the sergeant and were assembled near the driver’s side of the vehicle drew their weapons and ordered Mkoma to “put his hands up and drop the knife.”
The sergeant then opened the vehicle’s passenger door, and “the subject leaned toward the child holding the large knife and raised the weapon as if he was going to stab the child seated next to him,” the report says. The three police officers “immediately discharged their weapons at the subject through the windshield of the subject’s vehicle, striking the subject multiple times.”
The shooting “hindered” the subject and he dropped his knife.
Mkoma survived the shooting after being hospitalized for months.
In court records submitted by Mkoma’s attorney, Mikela “Mike” French, she asserts that police fired 20 rounds at the vehicle and that her client was hit by five bullets, after which his heart stopped and he had a stroke.
French also wrote that the refugee has schizophrenia and speaks limited English, and that the situation and “conflicting commands” from police confused him and likely led him to believe his son was in danger while Mkoma was undergoing a mental health crisis.
“Mr. Mkoma made a defensive maneuver with the knife he was holding, to protect his son, and officers unloaded 20 bullets into the vehicle, spraying glass and shrapnel over his son — who was thereby injured and very nearly shot,” she wrote.
French could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Protests, questions following Mkoma shooting
After the incident, members of Boise’s Bantu refugee community and others protested at City Hall and met with city leaders to discuss the incident. Many of them called for the release of body camera footage of the shooting.
However, the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office refused to release any footage, incident reports or evidence related to the shooting. A spokesperson from the office reiterated that stance Tuesday.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean asked Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts in August to allow the city to release body cam footage from multiple police shootings. Later that day, the prosecutor’s office said it would not do so while criminal proceedings or investigations are ongoing.
Two weeks after the shooting, Mkoma was charged with multiple felony counts, including three counts of lewd conduct with a child under age 16 and one count of aggravated battery upon certain personnel. His court case has since stalled, as Mkoma was declared mentally unfit for trial on Oct. 4.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 11.
In addition to the accountability investigation, Boise Police investigated the shooting internally, and the Garden City Police Department was named as the lead agency for an external review, which is standard.
On Tuesday, Boise Police Department spokesperson Haley Williams said the internal review has been completed but is not public record. Garden City Police said the Critical Incident Task Force investigation has been referred to Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs, whose office did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
It’s common for such task force investigations to be assigned elsewhere if the Ada County prosecutor declares a conflict of interest.
Boise officers are turning off camera microphones, director says
In addition to speaking about the reports, Jara told members of the Boise City Council that some police officers have been turning off the microphones on their body cameras at random times.
“We’re not sure why they’re doing it,” he told council members. “They’re inconsistent in that behavior.”
Jara told the Statesman in a phone interview that there’s no observable pattern to the microphones being muted. Sometimes it occurs during traffic stops or when an officer is running a background check on a computer, he said.
Jara recommended that the council draft and pass an ordinance that would prohibit officers from muting their microphones at certain times. Other police departments, he told the Statesman, will redact from recordings when allowed but keep microphones open, which is something he said he’d like the city to adopt.
Williams said in a written statement Tuesday that the department is reviewing when it is acceptable for an officer to hit mute.
“Some officers might mute their camera if they were discussing information unrelated to the current investigation and others did not,” she said. “We are working to identify and clarify those discretionary decision points.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
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