The Ada County Critical Incident Task Force is investigating the officer-involved shooting of 37-year-old Jeremiah Gaver in South Ada County early Wednesday.
Gaver, who stabbed two K9 dogs during the incident, is deceased.
The five officers involved — four Ada County Sheriff’s Office deputies and one Boise Police officer — are not injured. Both K9 dogs are badly injured and receiving emergency medical care.
The incident began in the Cole/Amity roads neighborhood at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The case is still in the preliminary stage and has multiple crime scenes, so there will be an active law enforcement presence in the neighborhood today as investigators gather evidence, do interviews, and piece together exactly what happened.
What we know at this point is this: An Ada County Sheriff’s deputy was on patrol when he saw a man, later identified as Jeremiah Gaver, covered in a tarp and holding a cane, looking over fences into the backyards of homes on South Maverick Way, just south of Amity Road.
The deputy talked to Gaver, who refused to identify himself, explain what he was doing, or remove his hand from underneath the tarp.
More deputies and Boise Police arrived.
Deputies continued to talk with Gaver, warning him numerous times that if he didn’t comply, deputies would use a less-lethal bean bag rifle and a K9 dog to get him into custody.
At 1 a.m., the deputy told Gaver he needed comply for a final time.
He didn’t, so an ACSO Deputy fired a bean bag round while another sent an ACSO K9 dog in Gaver’s direction. The bean bag round did not subdue him.
When the K9 dog caught up to Gaver, it appears the he stabbed the dog, turned around, and ran towards an open field to the east.
A group of ACSO deputies and Boise Police followed. Gaver stopped for a moment and deputies saw he was holding a knife. Deputies ordered Gaver to drop the knife multiple times, but he refused.
A short foot pursuit ensued. Gaver ran to the east side of the Cole/Amity intersection and towards a 24-hour gas station, where a second confrontation occurred.
ACSO deputies and Boise police deployed Tasers, which didn’t knock Gaver down at first, but he fell over a few moments later.
That’s when the Boise Police sent their K9 at Gaver, who stabbed the dog multiple times and then turned towards officers. Four ACSO deputies and one Boise Police officer fired at Gaver.
Once the area was secure, paramedics began medical treatment before taking Gaver to a local hospital, where he was declared deceased a short time later.
This is an active and ongoing investigation; all information is preliminary at this point.
The case is being investigated by the Ada County Critical Incident Task Force, which does an independent investigation of all uses of lethal force in Ada County. The Meridian Police Department is the lead agency for this incident.
The four ACSO deputies and BPD officer involved have all been put on administrative leave, which is standard practice.
The Ada County Coroner’s office publicly identified Gaver Wednesday afternoon.