Boise police officers shot her son. Now she wants justice and a change to the system
Melissa Walton clutched her shaking hands outside the Ada County Courthouse, tears streaming down her face as she spoke about the death of her son, Zachary Snow, at the hands of Boise police officers last year.
Walton and her legal team announced they filed a lawsuit against the Boise Police Department and two officers involved in shooting Snow, 26, of Boise, after his mother called them with concern that her son was having a mental health crisis.
Erin Dyer, Humberto Guizar and Christian Contreras, who are Walton’s lawyers, seek monetary amounts to be determined at the jury trial, the lawsuit said. The money would aim to cover Snow’s funeral cost, lost income and the loss of his familial relationship and companionship to his mother.
The lawsuit was filed Friday. Walton’s attorneys in the complaint said Boise Officers Matt Jacobs and Clifton Snodderly “breached their duty when they carelessly and negligently carried out their law enforcement duties,” specifically when the officers used their firearms and shot Snow, who did not have a firearm or other weapon.
Haley Williams, Boise police spokesperson, said in an email that the department could not comment on pending litigation. On May 16, the Boise Office of Police Accountability cleared Jacobs and Snodderly of wrongdoing and said they were permitted to use deadly force to prevent one of them from harm or “anyone else in the area from being hit with gunfire,” the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
The lawsuit said the two officers had no legal justification to use force against Snow.
“Law enforcement officers in Idaho are only allowed to use necessary force to effect an arrest, prevent escape or overcome resistance,” the attorneys wrote.
They said Jacobs and Snodderly “battered” Snow and used “unreasonable and excessive deadly force when they shot Snow to death.”
According to previous reporting from the Statesman, Snow was threatening to jump off an overpass on Oct. 27, near the intersection of South Capitol Boulevard and West Myrtle Street. Walton called dispatch about Snow’s mental health episode and told them he was unarmed, the Statesman reported.
“I called 911 because my son’s mental health was in crisis,” Walton said Monday. “And they responded by killing him.”
According to the report and to body camera footage released by Boise police, the officers announced themselves and told Snow he was under arrest. Then Snow pulled out a hard, black object from his rear waistband. He then took a shooter’s stance, and the officers fired their guns. It was later found that the object in Snow’s hand was a portable speaker.
“I’m not mad,” Walton said. “I am broken. But I can’t take back that call. I can’t change the fact that I thought reaching out to 911 was gonna save my son’s life. Nothing that I can do will ever bring my son back. Hopefully this will make the system change, and hopefully no one else has to suffer like we do.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 2:53 PM.
