Pocatello, ID — A routine traffic stop nearly turned deadly over the weekend after a Bannock County Sheriff’s deputy shot an unarmed 16-year-old boy. While the local media is reporting on the incident with the information from the department, the boy’s father tells the Free Thought Project that the incident is most certainly suspicious and there was no reason to shoot his son.

According to the official account from the sheriff’s department, the unidentified deputy pulled over the vehicle around 9 p.m. on Friday with multiple occupants inside. Although authorities did not say who else was in the vehicle, the boy’s father tells TFTP that it was occupied by the driver who was an 18-year-old male, the victim, and the victim’s younger sister and brother.

For some unknown reason, during the stop, the 16-year-old boy got out of the car and took off running. According to police, a struggle ensued and the boy and the officer engaged in an altercation in which the officer “feared for his life,” and had no other option but to shoot the boy.

According to the boy’s father, however, the three eyewitnesses in the car told a different story. According to the witnesses, the boy was tasered and lying on his back, writhing in pain from the taser, when he was shot in the stomach.

“My son is only 16 years old. He was unarmed. He was lying on his back on the ground in pain from being tazed and was shot close range with a police issue 45,” the boy’s father told TFTP through email.

To be clear, the 16-year-old boy was not driving the car that was stopped for a traffic violation. As he was not suspected of committing a crime, according to the fourth amendment of the constitution, he was free to get out of the vehicle and walk away. However, this is a grey area with law enforcement as officer safety often trumps individual liberty and often times, police can and will extend an ordinary traffic stop to question passengers and detain them……more here