Inset: Zachary Snow (GoFundMe) Background: Crime scene footage from the October 2021 shooting of Zachary Snow. (YouTube screengrab KTVB)
When Zachary Snow’s mother called the police seeking help for her unarmed son who was in the midst of a suicidal crisis, she thought she could entrust them with his life. Instead, she says, they eschewed their training and shot her child to death.
As a result, Melissa Walton has sued the City of Boise, Idaho, as well as two officers who serve on the Boise Police Department, Matt Jacobs and Clifton Snodderly, for wrongful death. Walton alleges the officers used excessive force in violation of her son’s Fourth Amendment rights when they shot and killed Snow on Oct. 27, 2021, instead of relying on the training they received to cope with people in the throes of a mental crisis.
This is the second lawsuit Walton has filed related to the death of her 26-year-old son. She first sued the Boise Police Department, Snodderly, Jacobs and 10 unnamed individuals or “John Does” in October 2022 in the Fourth Judicial District of the State of Idaho. The state case is ongoing and expected to go to a jury trial in March 2024 as this new federal claim plays out, The Idaho Statesman reported.
The allegations in Walton’s federal lawsuit relive the tragic details she leveled in the state case. Through attorneys Humberto Guizar, Christian Contreras and Erin Dyer, Walton says she called police in October 2021 after her son’s ex-girlfriend called her to warn that he was “hurting after they separated and he was suicidal.”
Walton disclosed that her son struggled with his mental health and was on medication after being diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder. In her lawsuit, Walton maintains that police knew her son required delicate care since they had “dealt with him in the past.”
It was around 5 p.m. on Oct. 27 when Walton contacted police, telling them she had a video of Snow standing on top of a building as he bid onlookers goodbye. After she contacted police in hopes that they would rush to the scene to save her son, she said she called Snow to tell him help was on the way.
“Hey bud, I called police. They’re looking for you. Go talk to them, they’re going to help you,” she told her son, according to the lawsuit.
After doing this, Walton said she spoke to another officer and informed him that her son had a history of depression, was “off his meds,” the lawsuit states, and that he was unarmed.
When officers found Snow in an empty parking lot, he wasn’t harming anyone, Walton’s lawsuit contends, and instead of setting up a perimeter or devising a plan to deal with her son, they “rushed into the situation contrary to their training and contrary to standard police practices.”
They swarmed Snow, drew their weapons and in rapid order, opened fire, her lawsuit alleges.
Police said in 2022 that Smith pulled a dark-colored object from the waistband of his pants and “took a shooter’s stance,” prompting Snodderly and Jacobs to fire. Snow died within days after being taken to a local hospital for his injuries.
The dark-colored object police reported thinking was a gun was in fact a dark-colored speaker, according to a report from the Boise Office of Police Accountability.
“I called 911 because my son’s mental health was in crisis. And they responded by killing him,” Walton said at a press conference in 2022 when she brought the first lawsuit.
Both officers were cleared of any wrongdoing in May 2022 and county prosecutors declined to pursue any charges.
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