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Boise area saw its 9th police shooting last week. Officer, suspect identified

By Alex Brizee</p><p>The Idaho Statesman</p><p>

BOISE – The Boise Police Department on Wednesday identified the corporal who shot and injured a suspect last week as Steven Martinez, who joined the department in 2008.

Boise police also identified the man who was shot and injured as Gabriel Pope, a 22-year-old who charged at police with a knife, according to a Boise police news release Wednesday.

Around 3 p.m. on Nov. 13, a Boise officer stopped a vehicle near South Division Avenue and West Howe Street in southeast Boise for a “fictitious plate,” according to the Police Department. Once officers pulled over the vehicle, the passenger, who was later identified as Pope, allegedly gave police false information, pulled out a knife and fled into a nearby neighborhood.

After setting up a perimeter, deploying drones and searching the area, an officer found Pope on Colorado Avenue, a few blocks from South Broadway Avenue, and attempted to approach him, according to the initial news release. Police said Pope “refused to follow commands” to get on the ground and that he charged at an officer with a knife, prompting Martinez to shoot him.

Pope was given medical aid at the scene and taken to a local hospital. No one else was injured.

A week later, Pope is “continuing to recover” in the hospital, and authorities issued a warrant for his arrest once he’s released, according to the Wednesday news release.

He’s facing four charges: assault or battery upon certain personnel, resisting or obstructing officers, proving false information to law enforcement and an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony. The Garden City Police Department is investigating the shooting as part of the county’s Critical Incident Task Force, which investigates police shootings.

This was the Boise Police Department’s fifth shooting this year, compared to six last year, according to a database maintained by the Idaho Statesman.

With a little more than a month left in the year, law enforcement agencies in Ada County were involved in nine shootings this year, which ties the number of shootings from last year. Canyon County and Owyhee County each had one police shooting this year.