Idaho Falls Police hold news conference about fatal officer-involved shooting

IDAHO FALLS — Idaho Falls Police Chief Bryce Johnson says his officers did nothing wrong in the officer-involved shooting of Shane McVey.

Johnson’s remarks, delivered at a news conference Friday, reaffirmed the findings of the Twin Falls Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation determined there are no grounds to file charges against IFPD Officer Earl Laughter III, who fired a single shot killing McVey on Jan. 23 or Sgt. Patrick McKenna, who was also on the scene at the time of the shooting.

“We are always reacting to what the other person is doing,” Johnson said. “Given everything the officers knew, what they saw, what was occurring — they acted as they were trained and supposed to do.”

Johnson also confirmed neither of the officers were wearing body cameras when McVey was shot coming up the steps from an apartment complex. He did say several officers who arrived later were wearing cameras.

“We don’t have enough body cameras for all of our officers,” he explained. “We’ve got about enough body cameras to cover about half of our patrol officers. So, they just didn’t have them. We don’t have enough for everybody.”

Later, when speaking to EastIdahoNews.com Johnson explained the lack of body cameras is due to a lack of funds though he would like to make sure that eventually, every officer has a body camera in the future.

Among the many questions, including the lack of body camera footage, that have surrounded this case since the incident, one that is frequently asked is why officers didn’t use non-lethal force, such as a taser. According to the investigation, McKenna did have his taser deployed but he did not fire it.

RELATED: Prosecutor: McVey was on drugs when he charged and pepper sprayed an officer before being shot

Johnson said one of the reasons McKenna did not fire the taser was because when a taser is activated, prior to firing, two laser dots appear indicating where the two prongs shot out of the taser will hit the target. Johnson said McKenna was only able to get one of the laser dots on McVey from where he was positioned next to Laughter.

“Sgt. McKenna was standing to the left and officer Laughter was standing to the right,” he explained. “So, Officer Laughter had the view down and could see what Mr. McVey was doing with his hand. Sgt. McKenna could not see that. So, as Sgt. Mckenna was watching, the hand was obscured. He couldn’t see the can of pepper spray come up. He couldn’t see all that.”

According to the investigation report, it was when McVey started to shoot pepper spray at Laughter that Laughter decided to fire his weapon. Laughter was afraid that if he was hit by the pepper spray, which, according to Johnson, would have incapacitated him, that McVey would have been able to take his gun from him and possibly kill him.

The incident had started earlier that night the parking lot of a Common Cents near North Corner Avenue and Elm Street. A member of the public called in a “suspicious person,” McVey, who appeared to be trying to light a fire behind the store. Johnson said he believes McVey may have been attempting to refill a flat tire using a technique that requires a blow torch. He said there is no evidence to indicate McVey was attempting to start a fire.

When officers arrived, McVey fled to a nearby apartment complex. The officers investigated McVey’s vehicle and found he was wanted on several outstanding warrant.

Officers followed his footprints in the snow and attempted to apprehend him, however, McVey rushed the officers attempted to shoot pepper spray at Laughter. That’s when Laughter discharged his firearm.

“The officers — what they saw was that he was charging up the stairs and the officers felt like they were under violent attack,” Johnson said. “He pulled out the pepper spray and tried to spray them with pepper spray. They believed he was trying to kill them.”

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