The Ada County Critical Incident Task Force is investigating the death of a 53-year-old man who confronted two Ada County Sheriff’s deputies with a handgun late Thursday night.
The deputies both fired at Lee Easter, who was pronounced dead following the incident at his home in the 10000 block of W. Spring River Street.
Neither of the deputies was hurt.
Deputies were sent to the home in the Five Mile Road/La Grange Street neighborhood after Ada County dispatchers got a 911 call at 10:48 p.m. Thursday where a man — later identified as Easter — said there was someone in his house and then hung up.
Dispatchers called the number back and the man answered, put the phone down and left the line open.
The first two deputies to arrive moments after that 911 call found the front door to the home ajar, so they pushed it open and yelled to anyone who may be inside.
The officers could hear someone moving around upstairs so they went in to investigate to determine if the person who called 911 was in danger.
Around this time, another man called 911 and said he was concerned about the mental state of the person inside the home on Spring River Drive. He told dispatchers he had talked to Easter and believed he may be suicidal. He also told dispatchers Easter had a gun.
The two deputies continued to hear movement on the second story, so they asked the person upstairs to come down while making sure the bottom level of the home was empty.
Several minutes passed as the deputies waited at the bottom of the stairs and asked whoever was upstairs to come down before Easter called down, saying “it’s too late.” That’s when he suddenly moved down the stairs while pointing a handgun at deputies.
At that point, both deputies fired their service weapons, hitting Easter.
The deputies then moved him outside. Paramedics arrived moments later but Easter was not able to be revived. Deputies then made sure no one else was inside the home.
The deputies involved in this incident, Neil Daigle and Keith James, have been with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office since 2010 and 2015.
Daigle started out a Jail deputy and moved to patrol in 2013.
This is the first critical incident for either Daigle or James.
The Critical Incident Task Force does an independent investigation of all uses of lethal force by law enforcement in Ada County. Boise Police is the lead investigative agency for this incident.
Investigators are still determining how many shots were fired and if Easter fired his gun.