Prosecutor clears Boise police officer in Wasson shooting. Body-cam footage released

The Gooding County prosecutor said Friday that criminal charges should not be pursued against the Boise police officer who fatally shot 22-year-old Payton Wasson in the head while he was running away with a gun.

Police Officer Chance Feldner, who joined the department in 2014 and shot Wasson in downtown Boise last year, was cleared of any wrongdoing, according to a letter from Gooding County Prosecutor Trevor Misseldine. Body-camera footage released by Boise police showed Wasson was running away when he was fatally shot, carrying a gun in his right hand.

“I have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to support a criminal charge against any of the law enforcement officers involved in this incident for the shooting death of Payton Wasson,” Misseldine said in the letter.

Boise police said they were investigating Wasson, along with 27-year-old Mario Garza, on suspicion of gang activity and drug dealing at the time of the shooting in June 2023. Misseldine in his letter said Wasson fled from police, drew a gun from his waistband and refused commands to stop while running toward a crowded area.

Misseldine was tapped to review any materials regarding the shooting and to determine whether Feldner’s actions were justified as part of the Critical Incident Task Force, which is deployed to investigate police shootings.

Garza was arrested and charged with three felonies: two counts of possessing fentanyl with intent to deliver and a felony gang enhancement, online court records showed.

Wasson’s death sparked several protests in the city and calls from police accountability advocates for transparency surrounding the details of the shooting. His mother, Marah Wasson, has also been a vocal critic of police’s actions that night. She’s filed a $5 million tort claim against the city, arguing that she’s suffered “mental anguish, emotional distress and physical manifestations” because of her son’s death.

“Payton Wasson was a victim of senseless violence at the hands of those sworn to protect us,” she said in a statement read on her behalf during a protest last year. “He was shot in the back of the head while running for his life from a Boise police officer. The heartache of losing Payton is unbearable, but what’s even more painful is the lack of transparency from (the) Boise Police Department.”

Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said in a news release that situations like this “rapidly unfold” and that officers are tasked with making difficult decisions in a matter of seconds.

“Our officers do not have the option of not intervening when such a person, armed and desperate to avoid apprehension, is headed toward a crowd of people,” Winegar said. “It is a tragic circumstance whenever officers must deploy deadly force, particularly when someone loses their life, and those involved, including the officers, will be impacted forever.”

‘You’re going to get f***ing shot’: Video details shooting

The roughly 8-minute video, which was edited with portions of the body-cam footage and included text describing the incident, showed that Wasson was armed, though he never points it at the officers.

Witnesses previously questioned police’s narrative about the weapon. Garza and his girlfriend, Jordan Smith, previously told the Idaho Statesman that they never saw Wasson with a gun.

“I didn’t see him have a gun. He didn’t point a gun at the police,” Smith said. “I didn’t see anything hit the ground, to be honest with you.”

In the body-cam footage, Feldner and two other officers, Boise Police Cpl. Brian Holland and Boise Officer Chase Fiddler, attempted to detain the trio after officers saw a weapon inside Garza’s vehicle earlier in the night. Neither Wasson nor Garza legally could possess a gun because of past felony convictions.

The video begins when all three officers in their vehicles pull up to the intersection of Idaho and 5th streets, where Wasson, Garza and Smith were standing.

“Don’t move,” Fiddler said in the footage, as he stepped out of his vehicle with an assault rifle and detained Garza and Smith.

Wasson, who was armed, instead ran toward Main Street, the footage showed, and both Feldner and Holland ran after him, repeatedly telling Wasson to drop the gun.

“Drop it. Drop the f***ing gun,” Feldner yelled at Wasson, who ran right by a man in a white T-shirt on the sidewalk while brandishing the weapon.

Feldner alleged Wasson threatened the man with the firearm, according to the video description, though it’s unclear what happened in the footage.

Feldner then raised his handgun and yelled: “Drop it. You’re going to get f***ing shot,” according to the video.

Wasson was still running away with a firearm in his right hand pointed toward the ground, the video showed. Feldner then proceeded to fire at least three rounds at Wasson.

“Officers were concerned that the armed suspect would either shoot a civilian or the police who were pursuing him,” Misseldine said in the letter.

The video showed Wasson lying on the sidewalk next to the Veltex Building, condos on the corner of Main and 5th streets. Wasson died the next day at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise at around 1 p.m.

It’s still unclear how many bullets hit him, but at least one struck him in the head, according to the Ada County Coroner’s Office. The complaint filed by Wasson’s family said that the bullet couldn’t be removed surgically and that medical staff said he was no longer exhibiting brain activity. His family then decided to take him off of life support, according to the complaint.

Marah Wasson’s “beautiful, sweet, amazing baby boy is now gone,” the complaint read. His mother “never imagined that one day she would have to bury her own son.”