Four-hour standoff in Kuna ends when teen shoots himself

A 14-year-old boy who stole two guns from a family member earlier this week and then refused to leave a friend’s house when police found him Friday afternoon suffered life-threatening injury when he shot himself. 

Kuna police spent hours talking to the boy and trying to convince him leave a home in the 1400 block of Kerf Street.  Three specialized crisis negotiation officers worked with the boy during the four-hour standoff, which ended when he fired a single shot at himself. 

Once officers were able to get inside the home around 6 p.m., they began life-saving measures and brought in paramedics, who had been waiting at the scene, who immediately began treatment and transported the boy to a local hospital. 

Kuna police had been looking for the boy since Wednesday, when they found out he had taken the guns and did not return home. 

The boy is a suspect in a fire set in some storage sheds behind a church on Deer Flat Road in July and had been in some other legal trouble in the past, and officers were very concerned about his safety and the safety of other kids he interacted with. 

The boy was clearly in crisis, so officers were trying to find and intervene before anything could happen. 

Officers developed some information early Friday afternoon the boy was at his friend’s house on Kerf Street, so officers went there about 1:30 p.m.

Officers knocked on the door, and eventually determined he was there, with his friend, and did have a least one of the guns.  Officers asked the people inside to leave.  Once they were out, officers began talking to the boy and his friend, asking them to leave.  The friend came out a short time later and told police the boy was inside, had a handgun, and fired one round inside the house. 

At that point, Kuna police backed off, set up officers around the house to protect the people in the neighborhood, and brought in crisis negotiators to talk to the boy.  They talked by phone and via text messages for hours. 

Kuna police found the boys parents and were working with them.  A Code Red notification went out from Ada County Dispatch to the neighborhood just before 4 p.m. warning of armed person in a residence and advising people to stay in their homes. 

Police continued to talk to the boy for another hour or so.  He told them he didn’t want to come out, that he didn’t wan’t go to the hospital or go to jail.  Other times he seemed like he wanted to come out.  Then he stopped answering the phone or texting.  Officers heard the sound of a single gun shot from inside around 5:45 p.m.