Star police shooting leaves one dead, Ada County sheriff says. What we know
In a rare shooting in a small town northwest of Boise, a 39-year-old man was shot and killed by a Star police officer around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Ada County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Patrick Orr told the Idaho Statesman by phone.
The shooting took place in Star, with a population of over 11,000, next to the parking lot of the city’s main grocery store, the Star Mercantile and Lumber, near an emission test station. The Star Merc sits along State Street, which is the main drag for those headed east to Boise or west to Middleton.
“This is something that doesn’t really happen in Star,” Star Police Chief Zach Hessing told reporters Wednesday. “It’s a very scary incident. Star’s a small town — we’re getting bigger — but again, it’s a small tight-knit community.”
Just after 8 a.m. Wednesday, Star police were contacted about the unidentified man “acting erratically and refusing to leave a family member’s home,” Hessing said. Authorities did not identify the man or confirm where he had lived, but they said he had family in Star.
Hessing said officers talked to the man at the home and noted he was agitated. After a short conversation, the man agreed to leave, and officers watched him walk away. Hessing said officers on the scene saw that the man had a gun.
Upon further investigation, “Star police were told the man had stolen a gun the night before and was likely intoxicated,” Hessing said officers then opened a stolen firearm investigation and began “actively” looking for the man. Hessing added that a detective with Star police had a description of the man and was driving around looking for him.
Sometime before 9:30 a.m., multiple Star officers found the man near the Star Merc parking lot. Hessing said the man was “uncooperative” and “armed with a gun.” At that point, Hessing said the shooting occurred. Officers began to perform life-saving measures but the man died at the scene, he said.
The three officers involved in the shooting have all been put on administrative leave, according to a Wednesday news release from the sheriff’s office. It’s unclear what roles the other two Star officers played in the shooting.
Orr told the Statesman by email that none of the three officers were injured.
Shooting rare for Star, residents say
“I have never seen a full-on shooting in Star,” 23-year-old Payton Spira, a bartender at a local bar who has lived in Star her whole life, told the Statesman in an interview Wednesday.
She added that the roughly 10 officers she saw following Wednesday’s shooting were probably the most cops she’d seen in Star for a while.
Aside from Wednesday’s incident and an unusual suicide-turned-murder case that occurred in December, Star hasn’t seen any shootings, Mayor Trevor Chadwick told the Statesman in an interview. He said the December murder case didn’t involve any of the city’s residents, in fact, the involved parties were from Nampa.
Both Chadwick and Hessing acknowledged that Star is growing. In the past 10 years, Star’s population has doubled, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. But Chadwick said a growing city doesn’t necessarily translate to more crime.
“It doesn’t matter the size of your town,” Chadwick told the Statesman. “It’s how you treat each other — which creates that small-town feel.”
The incident is under investigation, according to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office. The city of Star contracts with the sheriff’s office for law enforcement services.
The Boise Police Department is leading the critical incident task force investigation, authorities said.
This is the third shooting in the Treasure Valley this year. The latest shooting occurred in Meridian on June 9.
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 11:14 AM.
CORRECTION: The story was updated to correct a date. Star police were called to respond to the incident Wednesday.
