Armed man killed by Star police, adding to number of fatal shootings in Ada County

The Treasure Valley saw its seventh fatal shooting involving law enforcement Thursday night — six of them in Ada County — when a man died at a local hospital after being shot by police in Star.

The 41-year-old will be identified by the Ada County Coroner’s Office, according to a news release on the Ada County Sheriff’s Office website. No one on Star’s police force was hurt. The city contracts its law enforcement services with the sheriff’s office.

The Star officer who shot the man was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard policy. The Garden City Police Department will lead the Critical Incident Task Force investigation into the shooting, the release said.

Star police received a call from a third party who said the man was making “suicidal statements and threatening to harm himself,” according to the release. They responded to a field alongside Idaho 16 south of Floating Feather Road and found him not long after 5:40 p.m.

Officers spoke to the man and said they could see him holding a handgun, waving it around and pointing it at his head, and they asked him to drop the weapon, the release said. Just after 6 p.m., police said they heard a gunshot and saw the man fall in the field.

Officers moved toward the man, and seeing him move his hands, they instructed him to toss his gun aside so they could safely help, according to the release. After about 10 minutes, the man sat up, yelled at police and waved the gun around again, and a Star police officer fired his weapon at the man.

The 41-year-old then sat up once more and put his hands up, and paramedics began medical treatment after he was officially taken into custody at the scene, according to police. At around 7 p.m. they transported the man to a local hospital, where he died about two hours later, the release said.

Ada County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Patrick Orr said that more exact details were still being determined and that the case was under active investigation, in addition to the independent CITF inquiry that takes place with all uses of lethal force by police.

There now have been nine total shootings involving law enforcement in Ada County this year, and one in Canyon County. That Nampa shooting resulted in a fatality.

The Boise Police Department has been responsible for six of the shootings in Ada County, with four of those being fatal, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting. Sheriff’s office employees have been involved in the other two shooting deaths in Ada.

There have been at least 11 fatal police shootings across Idaho in 2023, according to a Statesman database.