As evening fell on Wednesday October 27th 2021 the Boise City Police Department in Idaho got a frantic call from the mother of Zachary Snow over 6 hours away in Northern Idaho begging them to find her son and help him as he was threatening his own life. Officers searched his name in their database and found he had a current warrant out for his arrest after being caught driving without priveleges and a criminal “history” that was in no shape or form violent. They immediately assumed he could potentially be a threat to more than just himself…At approximately 5:05pm the station received another call stating there was a suicidal person on interstate 84 threatening to jump off of a building/overpass. They continued the search for approximately half an hour before 2 officers officers found him in a cornered parking lot on W. Myrtle St and S. Capital Boulevard. They approached Zach where for still unknown reasons, officers 'percieved a deadly threat', leading them to open fire on Zach shooting him multiple times in the shoulder and in the head. There is still an ongoing investigation into these reasons.

ZACHARY WAS UNARMED, WAS SUFFERING MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS, AND HAD NO VIOLENT CRIMINAL HISTORY.

Zachary was rushed to the nearby hospital where doctors tried desperately to save his life but, despite all their best efforts he unfortunately was pronounced brain dead as the bullets had destroyed the cerebellum part of his brain. His parents made the heart wrenching decision to remove him from life support. Zach's body fought on until he unfortunately took his final breathe passing peacefully surrounded by the love of his parents and uncountable numbers of people from afar on Saturday October 30th, 2021 at 2:55am Boise time.

Zachary’s death was unjust and has left everyone he has touched in his life heartbroken. He had plans with family that won’t be tended to, plans with friends, holidays coming up, and a future to live little moments in life to live. He was described by many as as being sweet, loving, caring, loyal, resilient, sensitive, goofy, strong and family oriented. He was always known for his love of exploring Freak ally downtown, taking pictures, acting a fool with his younger brothers and friends, playing video games, watching the sunsets. He was the kind of person you could talk for hours with and lose track of time, he was always the first to call you and see what you were up to and how you were doing. He was a lover of music and red roses and an amazing artist, on one of his posts he says “I don’t draw, I tell a story… my art is a reflection of the worlds my soul cannot convey.” and it truly was. He told a story of a struggling soul that still had an eye for beauty in the world despite what was in his head.

We need to end police brutality, get justice for Zachary and raise awareness for mental health and how we can better help those suffering. We need better mental health training for police, more awareness and these officers need to be punished for their actions. Also, WE DEMAND ANSWERS.

Zachary was a lost soul who just needed help, yet was senselessly killed by Police. Currently, those who fired at Zachary, Officer Matt Jacobs, who has been with BPD for 14 years, and Officer Clifton Snodderly, who is a four-year member of the department are both now on paid administrative leave, per standard department protocols.

This is NOT justice, both officers should at least lose their jobs and be held accountable for the life they have taken for unjust reasons. 

WE MUST DO BETTER.