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Terrance Dominic Knight

Age : 19

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/05/2021

Location : 800 Shilling Ave

City : Blackfoot

County : Bingham

State : Idaho

Agency : Bingham County Sheriff’s Office, Blackfoot Police Department

Officer(s) :Sergeant Chad Kent

Cause of Death : Suicide

Event : Suicide under police duress

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/04/2021, at approximately 7:50 a.m., a man reported that the driver of a silver 2001 Chevrolet Impala had run a stop sign, struck his pickup truck in Blackfoot and continued driving. Terrance Dominic Knight, 19, was later identified as the Impala’s driver. At approximately 7:58 a.m., a Blackfoot Police Department detective located the Impala and attempted a traffic stop. Knight continued driving away during a short, low-speed pursuit before crashing into a camper parked in an alley. Knight and his passengers, Cecelia “Cece” Broncho, 22, and Sinjin Reyes, 23, left the vehicle and ran in different directions.
Two Bingham County Sheriff’s Office detectives wearing blue polo shirts with deputy badges hanging from their necks pursued Knight on foot along South Shilling Avenue and through residential yards. Sergeant Chad Kent later said he and another detective located Knight running south on Shilling Avenue. Knight ran behind a house, temporarily disappeared from Kent’s view and then emerged from an area containing trees and bushes.
Kent began giving Knight commands after confirming that he was the same person who had fled from the Impala. Knight was holding a stolen .380-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and fired at Kent, striking him in the right forearm. The wound severed an artery and damaged a nerve in Kent’s hand. Kent’s handgun discharged once as he was struck, but investigators determined that the bullet lodged in a nearby tree and did not strike Knight. Knight fired approximately three additional rounds toward Kent and then fatally shot himself. He was found dead in the backyard of a residence on South Shilling Avenue.
The original public statements did not disclose how Knight died, resulting in early news reports describing him only as a person found dead after a deputy was shot. Authorities also withheld the identities of Knight, Broncho, Reyes and the wounded detective for nearly three weeks. Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland identified the three people from the Impala on 08/24/2021, shortly after East Idaho News reported that the county had denied a public-records request seeking their names.
The Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force investigated the incident, with the Idaho Falls Police Department serving as the lead investigative agency. The task force’s investigative role does not make Idaho Falls Police Department an agency directly involved in the pursuit or confrontation.
Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Rogers reviewed investigative reports and video evidence. In a report dated 11/05/2021 and publicly reported in January 2022, Rogers concluded that Kent was legally justified in attempting to use deadly force after Knight shot him. The investigation nevertheless determined that Kent’s single discharged round struck a tree and that Knight died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, not police gunfire. No criminal charges were filed against Kent.
Broncho and Reyes were both taken into custody during the ensuing search, but neither was charged in connection with the shooting or Knight’s death. Reyes was held on a probation violation in an earlier case, while Broncho was briefly held on a misdemeanor probation violation and released.
Kent was treated at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and released. He continued to experience loss of sensation in the palm of his right hand and retrained himself to shoot left-handed. In October 2022, the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office presented Kent with a Law Enforcement Purple Heart for being wounded during the encounter.
Terrance Knight’s obituary identifies him as Terrance Dominic Knight, born on 05/18/2002 in Pocatello. It described him as a father, a former Highland High School student, an outdoorsman and a young man known for making friends and family laugh.
No public report located identifies the Blackfoot police detective who initiated the vehicle pursuit or the second Bingham County detective who participated in the foot search. Investigators reviewed video evidence, but no body-camera, dash-camera or other law-enforcement video of the encounter appears to have been publicly released. No wrongful-death lawsuit, civil settlement, organized protest or subsequent disciplinary action related to Knight’s death was located.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.kmvt.com/2021/08/05/deputy-shot-suspect-dead-after-eastern-idaho-hit-and-run/
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2021/08/one-suspect-in-custody-another-dead-after-shooting-in-blackfoot/