Two Boise police shootings followed vehicle pursuits. What rules govern such chases?
When police are called to investigate potential crimes and an alleged suspect doesn’t immediately yield, officers must follow a set of established rules for launching a vehicle pursuit because of the added risks such an action presents.
After a pair of recent police shootings in Boise over a two-week period, each following a brief chase, the law enforcement tactic — and when to deploy it — is garnering widening scrutiny as independent investigations of the two incidents continue.
On July 11, Boise police officers responded to reports of a reckless driver possibly under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to a news release. When officers tried to stop the driver of a moving van, which they discovered had previously been reported stolen, the suspect they later identified as Ezra Smith, 25, of Boise, swerved at them as he left the area, police said.
Because of high speeds and the potential danger to surrounding vehicles, police said they ended their pursuit of the van. When BPD officers again located the U-Haul-branded Ford van about 2 ½ miles west, they allege that Smith rammed one of the officer’s vehicles “multiple times,” the news release reported.
Gary Raney, a former Ada County sheriff who now works as a national law enforcement consultant, said police agencies have placed greater emphasis over the past few decades on community safety, thereby scaling back use of vehicle pursuits. Chases used to be standard practice if a suspect refused to pull over or stop, he said.
“Basically, if they ran, you chase them, and that’s the way it was,” he told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview. “And that’s still part of the argument out there, that if you don’t pursue, it educates criminals that they can get away. That’s not actually what the data shows.”
Today, almost all departments across the nation, including in Idaho, abide by a prescribed list of guidelines, Raney said, which has “vastly curtailed” pursuits. Still, the practice is sometimes employed when a suspect is deemed an immediate threat, he said.
“These are the really difficult decisions for police officers with limited information,” Raney said. “If you know everything about a person, even with all the variables, we would be able to make the right decision 90%-plus of the time. The problem is, in many of these cases, we don’t have all the information. It’s bits and pieces, third-hand accounts and just suspicion.”
Two members of the Boise police force, later identified by the department as Officers David Skube and Robert Denney, were involved in the July 11 shooting of Smith, and each was placed on paid administrative leave, per standard BPD policy. Neither Skube, who has been with Boise police for three years, nor Denney, a one-year BPD officer, had previously been involved in a shooting while with the department, BPD spokesperson Haley Williams said.
Smith, who survived the incident, was arrested and charged with four felonies, including fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer in a vehicle, assault or battery upon certain personnel and grand theft. He has an extensive history of drug, alcohol and driving convictions, as well as petit theft, according to Ada County court records. Smith remains in custody at the Ada County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Officers should not begin a vehicle pursuit for any minor traffic infractions, or suspected misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies, according to the Boise Police Department’s policy and procedures manual. An active pursuit should be discontinued, the guidelines from the manual last updated in January 2019 dictate, “if the danger posed by the continued pursuit outweighs the danger to the public of allowing the suspect to evade immediate capture.”
Furthermore, a supervising officer or on-duty watch commander is charged with overseeing all vehicle pursuits, and can decide whether one is ended or restarted. “Pursuit itself cannot be used as sole justification for continuing the pursuit,” BPD’s policy manual reads.
Although police said the initial pursuit was halted in the incident involving Smith, it is unclear who made that decision.
Two Boise police pursuits in two weeks
The circumstances of Boise police’s pursuit on June 27 of a Dodge Journey SUV driven by Mohamud Hassan Mkoma differ, according to BPD, but also ended in at least one Boise police officer firing his service weapon at a suspect.
Mkoma, 33, of Boise, was sought on suspicion of taking a 14-year-old child, police said. Officers had reason to believe the boy was in immediate danger, according to a BPD news release.
Family of the East African refugee dispute Boise police’s narrative, however, stating that the teen is Mkoma’s son. They held a protest outside Boise City Hall last week over a list of other discrepancies, and have said they are planning future demonstrations there as well.
After a recent divorce, Mkoma maintained partial custody of his five children, including every other weekend, court records obtained by the Statesman reveal. Mkoma also speaks limited English, and is on medication to treat his diagnosed mental health disorder, which is schizophrenia, family members said.
BPD has never acknowledged that the 14-year-old is Mkoma’s child, stating only that the suspect was “known to the family.” It also wasn’t until formal charges were filed last week that the department positively identified the suspect as Mkoma, who they initially issued a series of tweets about the day of the alleged kidnapping.
Shortly after BPD posted on social media seeking the public’s help, the department said officers spotted Mkoma’s SUV not far from where the boy was reported taken, and tried to stop him. Instead, he fled, police allege.
“Officers on patrol located the vehicle of the suspect and attempted to make a traffic stop. The suspect chose to flee,” Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee said in a June 27 press conference after the shooting. “During the course of the pursuit, officers saw what they believed was a weapon being waved around inside the vehicle.”
Mkoma is charged with brandishing a knife at both the teen and officers, creating a “well-founded fear” that “violence was imminent,” the criminal complaint obtained by the Statesman states. Police said that after officers saw the weapon, they performed a vehicle chase technique, known as a PIT maneuver, to spin out Mkoma’s SUV, which included the boy inside.
“A person doing a PIT maneuver must be trained to do it. I don’t know of an agency that doesn’t require it,” Raney said. “It’s not a complicated maneuver, but it can lead to death.”
Williams, the BPD spokesperson, declined to answer specific questions about either of the two recent police pursuits, including whether officers followed the requirements laid out in the department’s policy and procedures manual. She would not say whether officers had activated their lights or sirens; whether they were driving marked patrol vehicles outfitted with the required equipment to deploy the pursuit maneuver used in the Mkoma incident; or whether the officers were trained for the technique and had authorization to perform it.
“I cannot provide more information about the individual investigations while they are still open,” Williams said in a written statement to the Statesman. “You can refer to our policy for expectations around pursuits. BPD is also doing an internal review to ensure compliance with BPD policy.”
Boise refugee community continues to demand transparency
Three Boise police officers were involved in the June 27 shooting — BPD’s first of 2021. The department later identified them as Officers Steve Martinez, Aaron Hartje and Jeff Ridgeway, with their BPD tenures ranging from four years to 13. Martinez, the most experienced among them, is the only one of the three officers previously involved in a shooting as a member of the Boise Police Department, and each officer was placed on paid administrative leave.
Mkoma now faces multiple felony charges, including three counts of lewd acts with a child under 16 years of age dating to last year. Aggravated assault and aggravated assault or battery of certain personnel for allegedly threatening police with a deadly weapon are among Mkoma’s felony charges as well, and he faces four misdemeanors, including fleeing or attempting to elude a peace officer in a vehicle.
Mkoma previously pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors, for domestic battery and two counts of assault or battery upon certain personnel. He served a total of five years of probation, which expired last September.
Both shootings are now under investigation by the Ada County Critical Incident Task Force, with the Meridian Police Department taking the lead in the July 11 incident, and the Garden City Police Department heading up the one involving Mkoma. Each incident also is receiving separate review by the city of Boise’s independent Office of Police Accountability, a city spokesperson said.
In their efforts to better understand the situation, Mkoma’s family and members of the local Somali Bantu refugee community have continued to request release of the 911 dispatch call, as well as footage from the body cameras worn by officers. They also met earlier this month with Lee and Boise Mayor Lauren McLean separately to reiterate their demands.
Boise police denied a Statesman request under the Idaho Public Records Act for the police reports from the June 27 incident, citing an ongoing investigation. The department also denied a request for the body-camera and vehicle dash-cam footage, saying that release of the information during an active criminal court case “would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or impartial adjudication.”
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the county’s dispatch center, denied a Statesman request for the 911 call recording that initiated the incident as well, citing the item still being under investigation and stating that release would “interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
Mkoma continues to recover at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, according to defense attorney Mike French, partner with Bartlett & French of Boise, who has been retained to represent him. Mkoma’s younger sister and brother said the family saw its hospital visitation revoked after he was formally charged on July 14.
Williams, the BPD spokesperson, said Thursday by email that Mkoma’s medical condition was not available for public release, though on several occasions the department previously provided public updates on his status. Prior hospital visits were an exception made for the family, she said, and now that Mkoma has been charged, he is technically in the custody of the Ada County Jail.
Mkoma is due to be arraigned in Ada County District Court on Monday afternoon. Smith, the man Boise police shot on July 11, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Thursday, July 29.
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
