15 yo Asperger Teen Shot Dead by Police

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This is so sad, there is no excuse for the cops to shoot him, he wasn't holding a gun.
What is horrific is that the article states the cops had been to that house 10 times in less than 2 years to "subdue" the teen with a tazer.
So is the family calling the police to "subdue" him? The system should have intervened.

http://www.care2.com/causes/illinois-po ... rgers.html

The officer claims the scared teen lashed out with his butter knife and hit one of the cops and that the cop was in fear for his life because of that??! ! That's disgusting. Unexplainable. THe cop is the one with the gun. The teen is just a boy, and he's obviously scared.

This is sickening. They really need to train police how to deal with these situations so they don't turn out deadly. In many cases, it's the police who have no idea how to react properly when encountering an emotionally, mentally, or Autistic individual.

There are states that put their police into training with mental health professionals so that the police can learn more about issues the mentally ill person (or Autistic) could be having, the goal would be for the police to learn and modify their police behavior to adapt and handle these types of situations better. Most police in states don't have the training, however it is getting around. Chicago needs it badly.

I can never understand how cop can fear a child holding a butter knife, when the cop holds the loaded gun, it just is beyond comprehension to me.

I really hope the family sues the police department. There is no excuse for them to have shot the boy.
3 officers present could likely have easily restrained him and removed the butter knife all the same time.
Unless the cops were butterballs, there is no excuse for murder.

The article also mentions the parents were upset as the cops have never fired a gun at their son. Prior they have always used tazers.
I am curious if the parents were the type to call the police to deal with their son when he was out of control, instead of dealing themselves.
The parents seemed to be used to the police tazing their son. I'm sorry i could never let a cop taze my kids. That's just wrong.
Likely they could have benefited from a support group to learn about their son and how to cope.

The kid was in the wrong for wielding a knife in a threatening manner (if he did possess said butter knife - I'm not near my own computer and the one I'm using isn't loading the page, so I just read the synopsis a user posted "for the click impaired"), but on the same token, the officer could have used better judgment in the situation. Perhaps tackling him and removing the knife from his hands, but realistically, officers are given extensive training in stopping threats with "enough force to ensure the threat has been repelled." This usually means using lethal force, because there isn't a decent definition for "adequate use of force." In other words, like they say in Zombieland; "Double-tap."

Believe it or not, other incidents like this (most notably a case involving an autistic adolescent male who happened to fit the description of a suspect who was spotted brandishing a gun. The kid was approached by officers and became distressed, he reached into his pocket and that is when officers drew their weapons and fired, killing the young man) has led to the formation of specialized training courses in handling individuals like those with ASDs in some jurisdictions.

I think you should read the actual article asap, the officers on the scene were even more in the wrong for shooting him dead when they could've easily stunned him or otherwise subdued him. There were three officers on the scene, and supposedly none of them could contain the situation without killing someone. I personally find that to be bulls**t, and a big load of it at that.
Three officers against one kid with a butter knife? Yeah, I'm pretty sure they could've taken the kid down without killing him.

Did any of them have Tasers? Not all officers carry them and in most jurisdictions they aren't mandatory (most don't want to certify in Taser use - you also have to be tased in the course of the training, as is the case with oleoresin capsicum (OC) pepper spray, though OC is mandatory). As I have said in my original comment, there are other means to neutralize a threat (OC being one of them, though not always effective) and that both sides were in the wrong.

According to the report, officers had tased the kid before, so I'm assuming they'd be smart enough to send tasers even as a precaution, simply due to that fact. And even if they didn't have tasers, it was three officers with guns, against one kid with a butter knife. The only thing the kid did wrong was have a meltdown and that's not something he could've controlled.

Why did I read this thread? So many posts defending the use of excessive force by police officers.

Maybe if everyone used tranquilizers, then everyone would be happy. The teen would still be alive. The police respond in self defense, the kid is alive and everyone is happy. Or maybe people would go off about the kid being knocked out because he was autistic.

I think less people would complain about an autistic person being tranquilized (or tased for that matter), than they would complain about an autistic person being shot because of a symptom of his condition. It makes one wonder what cops in other places will do when they encounter that sort of thing.
It's amazing that we have all of this technology at our disposal to peacefully resolve any situation, and yet people still act like they have the mentality of someone from the dark ages when they see something they fear in ignorance. The human race is still far too barbaric.

Sadly people here are making psychopathy part of autism. Five years ago my husband wanted to know what Asperger's was because he wanted to make sure I wouldn't be chasing him with a knife. Then this incident happens and people blame the knife part on autism? Don't they know how insulting that is? Especially the idea my husband got in his head and I thought it was ridiculous for thinking such a thing because he acted like AS was some sort of psychotic disorder. Then this happens and people go "oh autism did it."

Agreed, it's lunacy. I have AS and when I heard about how people are starting to think that sort of thing I wondered if people would look at me differently, I still do, although people I personally know, knows I wouldn't do anything like what Lanza did (plus most of them know the facts anyway), but it often makes me wonder about people I meet in the future.

Tragic.

I agree the police had a right to defend themselves. Once someone stabs you with something, no matter what it is, you have a right to defend yourself. At that point it does not matter if the person has a condition.

But I feel this could have been prevented. One of the posts on the first page said the police were called to the house many times to help with his "treatment plan". Sounds to me like the parents were not tolerant at all about there son's AS and wanted to "fix" him.

IMO the parents are at fault, too.

A big FAIL to that treatment team who said part of the treatment plan was calling in the police when the kid melted down.

The police are NOT

psychiatric social workers
therapists
special ed teachers
developmental pediatricians
psychiatrists
etc

And if the above were doing a s**t poor job, after at least 6+ post high school education, why do we place the police at such a high standard? Some may only
have 2 years of post secondary education. If you kid's damn psychiatrist can't sedate you kid into submission, what the hell is the police going to do about it? Wave
their magic fairy wands? Not that sedating is a goal, but if some person with 12+ years of education can't figure out your kid, what is the police going to when you panic call 911?


Calling the police to handle a domestic dispute is the equivalent of using a flame thrower to kill a fly. It was a BS plan on the parents and the teams part.

They might have been doing this to leave a document trail for forced treatment, covered by some insurance plan. My fellow police officer friends hate that BS. They get to be the fall guys for the mentally ill, substance abusers, and the out of control crowd (whatever the reason), because my country has a lousy mental health system.

As for "couldn't they handle a 15 year old kid?" Well, come to the ER, and have fun with the out of control folks I got to deal with on a nightly basis. I've seen 13 year old, 90 lbs girls, take down 5 security guards before it was four point time. Out of control humans are nothing to be messed with. As gross as this sounds, time is a factor. My husband says it takes hours for him to be able to even function after a meltdown. Sorry to say, the police in my area don't have the luxury of time to let 3 officers basically baby sit a 15 year old.

I read the article. It said kitchen knife, which in my area is not considered a butter knife.

I'm sure the parents will sue the city. I hope they sue the treatment team, but probably won't. Welcome to the world of adolescent/adult autism care. After your child is punted from elementary school, it is very, very hard to get any support unless the child is a minimum of 2 grade levels behind. I know parents that have, but it is because they are total pit bulls about keeping the higher ups feet to the fire. Not every parent has the time, money or intellect to work through that snarly rat maze.

In short, the police shouldn't have been placed in that situation to begin with. That treatment team will skate away blameless, and deflect their lack of any meaningful help on
three police officers, in a very charged, stressful situation.

Shame on them.

Bloody hell...I'm glad I don't live in America. With all the bad press we're getting in America, I feel like locking myself in a cupboard and going to Narnia.

Another reason for me to hate cops!