Boise Police will need to answer these questions about shooting to maintain public trust

The Boise Police Department needs to be completely transparent with vital details about the June 27 police shooting of Mohamud Hassan Mkoma, a 33-year-old refugee from East Africa.

Police are not releasing many details. We understand the investigation is ongoing, but sooner or later, the Boise Police Department is going to have to answer some important questions about this shooting.

We urge the community to be patient while the investigation is completed, but we hope the Boise Police Department understands that silence breeds suspicion, and not releasing details, particularly in such serious incidents as this, has a tendency to inflame the community, especially those affected by the shooting.

We are encouraged that Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee and Mayor Lauren McLean have met with family and community leaders to address their concerns. It’s a good start.

On June 27, police shot Mkoma after it was reported that a 14-year-old boy — who has been identified as Mkoma’s son — was in danger.

Police located Mkoma’s vehicle, and a chase ensued, including a chase maneuver to spin out the vehicle. Police confronted the man after seeing a Black child in the vehicle, as well as what they thought was a weapon.

Three members of the police force were involved in the shooting, from which Mkoma is recovering after surgery at an area hospital in critical but stable condition.

The shooting has raised many questions that Boise police will need to address.

• Mkoma’s mental state. According to Mkoma’s family, he suffers from a mental health disorder and speaks limited English. Who reported Mkoma to 911 and what were the circumstances? Did the reporting party inform 911 dispatch that it was a mental health call or a crisis call? Did dispatch ask whether mental health was an issue or this was a crisis call? If so, did dispatch relay to police that this was a crisis call?

• Police response. Did Boise police treat this as a mental health crisis? Were the officers who responded trained in crisis intervention? Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee last year committed to having every Boise police officer receive crisis intervention training. Previously, about 60% of Boise’s force had gone through voluntary training in crisis intervention, according to the Boise Police Department.

• Weapon. One of the big questions to answer is whether Mkoma had a weapon. Police initially said they saw a weapon, but they have been tight-lipped about it ever since. To date, police have not said whether a weapon was found in or around the man’s vehicle, what they believed the weapon they saw was or whether the man they shot tried to use it at any point during the incident, including against them. Did they see the man holding a weapon, which hasn’t been identified? Did the man threaten the child with it? Did he threaten police with it?

• Independent investigation. While Ada County’s Critical Incident Task Force, led by the Garden City Police Department, investigates the shooting, we are encouraged to learn that the city’s independent Office of Police Oversight has already launched its own review of the shooting, independent of the task force probe. We hope that the investigations maintain objectivity and that results are released to the public. Once the task force investigation is complete, to which prosecutor will it be forwarded?

Asking these questions should not be seen as an indictment of police officers in general, or of the officers involved in this shooting. We do not have enough facts to make a judgment on whether what went down was proper or improper. It’s vital that all of the facts are shared.

We also do not underestimate the difficulty and the danger of police work. No one ever should. We respect the job police officers have to do every day.

But that’s not to say mistakes are never made.

If mistakes were made here, we hope that the Boise Police Department will share those details of the incident so that we may take the lessons learned and prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Answering all of the questions will go a long way in maintaining public trust.

This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 5:55 PM.