Boise police officer cleared of use of force in mall shooting

An Idaho prosecutor said in a report this month that police were met with “continuous gunfire” as they entered the Boise Town Square Mall, and that a Boise Police Department officer’s attempt to use deadly force against the attacker was justified.

The Boise Police Department said in a news release news release Thursday, Twin Falls County District Attorney Grant Loebs determined that an officer at the mall on Oct. 25, 2021, took appropriate action. The release did not name the officer, but earlier Statesman reports of official accounts from the day indicated that BPD officers Jason Shofner and Chris Dance were the ones who engaged the shooter, Jacob Bergquist.

Bergquist drove through the mall for 24 minutes before finally opening fire, killing two people and injuring several others. According to a previous Statesman report, he walked away from the encounter with security guard Joe Acker, but quickly turned around and shot Acker. That set off the attack, in which Bergquist then “walked back and shot up the main hallway of the mall” before entering Macy’s and opening fire.

After he left the mall, body camera footage Bergquist shot two Boise police officers in his car. According to police reports, they arrived within minutes and confronted Bergquist behind Dave and Buster’s and opened fire.

One of the officer’s firearms malfunctioned, so he tried to run Bergquist over with the patrol car, according to Boise police.

Bergquist shot himself in the head behind the building and died within seven minutes of shooting at the mall, police said.

Loebs said in his report that, according to the BPD statement, the officer was “not only lawfully attempting to apprehend a violent criminal and defend other law enforcement officers, but in self-defense and to stop the ongoing shooting that ensued, He acted. The lives of two citizens and the lives of others were threatened.”