Boise refugee shot by police has been in custody for 2 years. He could be released

Mohamud Mkoma, a Somali refugee, has been in custody for two years after police accused him of kidnapping his son, fired 20 rounds at him and shot him five times, according to court records. Now, he could walk free.

The 35-year-old Boise resident was arrested in June 2021 and charged with six felonies and four misdemeanors, including three counts of lewd conduct after authorities alleged he sexually abused three underage children — though family members have denied the charges.

But Mkoma’s criminal case hasn’t advanced since October 2021, when he was declared mentally unfit and sent to State Hospital South in Blackfoot under the care of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Mkoma, who’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia, has been in custody ever since. He’s now being held at the Ada County Jail, online jail records showed.

Health and Welfare wants Mkoma to be released into the community, according to several motions filed by the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office and obtained by the Idaho Statesman. Typically when the state health agency is willing to release someone in custody back into the community, health officials don’t believe the patient’s competency can be restored. Under state law, a defendant can be acquitted of all charges on the basis of “mental disease or defect.”

Health and Welfare filed a notice of contemplated release in April, prompting public defender Kate Enterkine, who is representing Mkoma, to file a motion to dismiss the charges against him and release him into the community. Health officials are expected to notify the court when they intend to release someone from an inpatient facility, according to state law.

The notice filed by Health and Welfare is sealed from the public, and a department spokesperson declined to provide more details.

“In general, (Health and Welfare) does not recommend whether or not a patient is released to the community,” spokesperson Greg Stahl told the Statesman by email. “Our role and responsibility is to report to the court on the status of restoration, including whether a patient is restorable or not. It is up to the court to make a decision what should happen to the patient once informed of their status.”

A judge now decides whether Mkoma meets the legal criteria to be released. Fourth District Magistrate Judge Ada Kimball has tasked an independent evaluator, a Virginia-based psychologist, with performing another evaluation on Mkoma to determine whether he meets the legal conditions to be released.

Mkoma’s family wants him released

Mkoma’s possible release came as a surprise to Mkoma’s younger brother, Mohamed Mkoma, who told the Statesman his family hadn’t been informed of the newest competency proceedings.

“It would be a relief, especially coming from my mother — her son being struck down and then being in prison for two years is tough on her,” Mohamed Mkoma said in an in-person interview, when asked about the possibility of his brother being released.

Mohamed Mkoma said his brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 10 years ago and that his mental health has declined since the shooting. Mohamud Mkoma’s heart stopped following the shooting and he had a stroke, the Statesman previously reported.

Mohamed Mkoma added that his brother was born in the late 1980s in Somalia and dealt with trauma as he grew up during the country’s ongoing civil war, before he left with his family for Kenya at the age of 6.

Mchiwa Hassan, Mkoma’s mother, told the Statesman that it’s not good for her son’s health to be kept in custody and that the only thing that was keeping him sane was to be around her and his five children. Mohamed Mkoma interpreted for Hassan, who spoke to the Statesman in Swahili.

“We’d want the state to release him,” Mkoma’s mother, Mchiwa Hassan, told the Statesman.

Mkoma’s competency to be reevaluated

In 2021, authorities said they believed Mkoma abducted his 14-year-old son on a Sunday afternoon. After searching for them throughout the day, Boise police said they located Mkoma and the teen driving and pulled them over. Police then confronted Mkoma, and three officers fired their guns after prosecutors alleged Mkoma brandished a knife at the child and at an officer, the Statesman previously reported.

In court filings, Mike French, Mkoma’s former attorney, disputed the prosecution’s narrative and argued Mkoma was “undergoing a mental health crisis” and believed his son was in danger, according to prior reporting. French said the officers surrounded the vehicle with their weapons drawn and yelled conflicting commands at him until one of the officers reached for his son, which caused Mkoma to make a “defensive maneuver with the knife he was holding, to protect his son.”

Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Brett Judd has objected to Mkoma’s release and asked for his competency to be reevaluated. In an August court order, Judge Kimball charged Brett Gardner, a forensic evaluator who conducts competency evaluations at a Virginia state hospital, to assess Mkoma and evaluate Mkoma’s competency after Judd expressed concerns that the court should use an independent evaluation for his competency.

“The state is concerned that the previous evaluations of the defendant are outdated and the defendant has progressed to the point that the Department of Health and Welfare wants to place the defendant in the community,” Judd wrote in a motion.

The Twin Falls Prosecuting Attorney’s Office cleared the officers — Steve Martinez, Aaron Hartje and Jeff Ridgeway — involved in Mkoma’s shooting of wrongdoing. In December 2021, Boise’s Office of Police Accountability also ruled the three officers were justified in shooting Mkoma, according to prior Statesman reporting, though two of the officers were criticized for not activating their body cameras.

Judge assigns psychologist to evaluate Mkoma

During an August hearing, Enterkine argued it wasn’t “appropriate” to use an evaluator hired by the prosecution and said it should be an independent investigator.

Instead, Enterkine said she’d prefer Mkoma to be evaluated by another Health and Welfare employee or someone who’s contracted by the department. Typically the state health agency conducts the initial evaluation, and if a secondary evaluation is needed, health officials can pull from a pool of several local psychologists who work with the department.

Kimball agreed with Judd that someone contracted by the health department wouldn’t be independent, pointing out that evaluators might have a hard time contradicting the opinion of the agency that hired them.

Kimball placed several restrictions on Gardner’s evaluation to alleviate concerns brought up by Mkoma’s attorneys. In the order, Kimball restricted Gardner from talking to Mkoma about the facts of the alleged crime so that any information said during the evaluation couldn’t be used against him if the case were to proceed to trial.

Prosecutors are also expected to limit their email communications with Gardner to logistics regarding access to the Ada County Jail and travel and copy Mkoma’s attorneys on any of those emails. The evaluation report will also be provided to both the defense and prosecution along with the court.

Mkoma’s next court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, online court records showed.