NAMPA, Idaho — Joe Flores was shot and killed September 1st, 2022, in the parking lot in front of Buffalo Wild Wings in Nampa.
Joe’s brother Chris Flores said, "I see my brother's lifeless body on the black pavement floor and his feet sticking up. And that's when I realized something really bad had happened."
"No, no there are no words to describe that,” Martin Flores said.
Martin and Chris are left feeling empty without their family member. "I can't even explain that feeling,” Chris said. "He had everything going for him. he was living his best life."
Nampa Police-Lieutenant Jaime Burns recently took over the investigation. He said the case involves people known to be in gangs.
"The way I look at it is in this shooting scenario –you have an innocent bystander that was shot by a thug, and they took his life,” Burns said.
One year later, the homicide case is still under investigation - no arrests have been made.
Burns said getting tips from the community is always harder when the crime involves gangs. "So, there's several suspects that we have in mind for the entire incident. And then we are narrowing down,” Burns continued. "I think at the end of the day, the right thing to do is especially if you know somebody that's a violent person that can commit the same crime again, and, again, you can potentially prevent that.”
For the Flores family, patience is running thin. They said that all they are looking for, is answers.
Chris said communication with the Nampa Police Department has been difficult, making them feel like they’ve been forgotten. "I know, they can't tell me much. But we're not getting anywhere with this.”
"The lack of communication between them to PD, to us and our family, and the lack of information. And every time we talk to them, they just try to spin it off,” Chris said.
It’s something Burns doesn’t deny. He said it’s a work in progress.
"The last time I talked to him, I admitted my faults in that. And I had a million excuses for him,” Burns said. “I took over the role of just calling him every two weeks or sending a text to him. But again, without having a lot of updates for the case, or there wasn't a lot of information.”
The lack of information the Flores family has experienced is making them believe the department is not serving the entire community.
"I just feel like just because my brother was Hispanic, they don't want to pay as much attention to his thing,” said Chris.
In response, Burns said that is not the case.
"I think it's fair for them to feel that way, but It's not fair for them to think that we operate at that standard,’ Burns said. “Because of human life, it doesn't matter. Again, the color of his skin, doesn't matter what his past is, it does any investigation that we look in, you have to look beyond that."
Another issue, Burns said the department is operating with limited staff making it harder to keep up with each case. "Every division from our patrol division to our detectives are short staffed.”
Burns said the department has 10 detectives, each assigned between seven and 10 cases.
"They're pouring their hearts and souls into this because they want to, they want we all want the cases to be to come to justice and families and victims,” said Burns. “To be, you know, some closure in a case. And I know this family really wants that closure."
Closure is something the Flores family has been waiting for - for over a year.
"We don't want problems. We don't want anything. We want justice. We want to know who did it," said Martin.
As they wait for answers, memories are the only thing keeping Joe close to their hearts. “Joe was a very kind, loving gentleman that literally would help take a shirt off his back to help anybody,” Chris said.
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