Nampa police fatally shoot man who ‘came at the officer with a knife.’ No one else injured

A man who might have been in “a mental crisis” was fatally shot by police Wednesday in Nampa, according to the city police department.

Nampa police received a call from a local hospital stating that a man had run away from the medical center and was running into traffic, according to Curt Shankel, Nampa interim police chief.

“He appeared to be kind of in a crisis, a mental crisis of some sort,” Shankel told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

Police then received a call from a restaurant that the man had gone into its building and taken two knives. He ran into another restaurant’s parking lot and attempted to carjack at least one vehicle, according to police.

“At 12:49 p.m. Nampa Dispatch received a call reporting a male adult had tried to force his way into an occupied car, calling the occupant a name and telling her to get out of her car,” Nampa police said in a social media post.

The man then ran into a McDonald’s parking lot, where he “refused to drop the knives” and “lunged” at an officer, according to a social media post from police.

“The officer arrived, made contact with this male suspect, at which time he came at the officer with a knife and the officer discharged his weapon,” Shankel said.

One other officer arrived shortly after the man was shot, according to Shankel.

The officer who fired his weapon began life-saving measures and continued them until Canyon County paramedics arrived, police said, but the man died at the scene.

The Nampa Police Department said in a social media post that the shooting occurred near Midland Boulevard and North Marketplace Boulevard, which is just north of the Karcher Road exit off Interstate 84.

Shankel said he would need to wait until he had further details to know whether use-of-force guidelines were followed, but he said the incident, as presented to him, sounded as if they were.

“If the individual came at the officer with a knife, then yes, that officer had every right to protect not only himself, but protect the citizens by not allowing this individual to do anybody harm with a weapon,” Shankel said.

Shankel said he did not know how many times the officer fired the gun or where the man was struck.

The Critical Incident Task Force investigation into the shooting is being led by the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, according to the department.

Shankel said the coroner would release the man’s name and the task force would release the officer’s name.

The officer involved has more than five years of police experience, including over a year with Nampa’s department, he said.

This was the first police shooting in Nampa this year but the ninth overall in the Treasure Valley in 2023. Some shootings did not result in fatalities.

There have been at least nine fatal police shootings throughout Idaho this year, according to a database maintained by the Idaho Statesman.