Posted on 09/23/2020 9:11:28 AM PDT by grundle
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 13-year-old Utah boy with autism was shot by police after his mother asked for help getting him hospital mental-health treatment and officers agreed to talk with him, police footage released Monday showed.
The videos show Salt Lake City officers chasing him down an alley after they arrive at his home, then yelling at him to get on the ground. The boy collapses after a series of shots ring out, moaning, “I don’t feel good. I don’t feel good.” He survived but suffered broken bones and pierced organs, the family's attorney has said.
His mother, Golda Barton, had warned police that her son said earlier that day, Sept. 4, that he had a gun and had threatened to shoot her male coworker and break windows in the house, the video showed. But she told officers she thought it was a BB gun or pellet gun. There were no indications he was armed.
She wanted him to be hospitalized for help with his mental health issues.
Officers said they would have to proceed as though the boy did have access to a real gun, the videos show. Barton told officers the boy was “triggered” by seeing police.
“He sees the badge and he automatically thinks you are going to kill him or he has to defend himself in some way,” she said. “He freaks out.”
The video was made public under a Salt Lake City ordinance requiring the release of video from police shootings within 10 business days.
The shooting has raised new questions about how police deal with people with mental health issues amid nationwide calls for police reform. It came hours before new deescalation tactics were due to take effect for Salt Lake City police, which is also cooperating with an independent investigation
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Family attorney? Perhaps I’m out of touch but pretty sure I don’t have a family attorney. Maybe they meant an attorney representing the family?
Mother decides to buy a ticket for the lawsuit lottery? Two birds with one stone? The cops take out the unwanted kid, and she gets a multi-million dollar payout? Maybe I’m too cynical.
The very rich and the very poor share a very few things.
One is having a “family attorney.” Generally on retainer.
Honestly, I thought the same thing.
“Mother decides to buy a ticket for the lawsuit lottery? Two birds with one stone? The cops take out the unwanted kid, and she gets a multi-million dollar payout? Maybe I’m too cynical.”
You’re dead on.
13yr olds with guns can be just as deadly as hardened criminals ya’ know?
Sounds like the “mother” swatted her own son.
Reading the mother’s comments, he’s triggered by law enforcement, unintentional or not, she set him up.
We have to reopen our state mental hospitals.
Maybe we’re related. I’m either cynically skeptical or skeptically cynical. Only a counselor may be able to pinpoint that. :-)
The kid is white.
White lives don’t matter.
No one will care.
From the article: “....But she told officers she thought it was a BB gun or pellet gun. There were no indications he was armed....”
It seems to me like police officers should not be expected to discern, in the microsecond that they are fearing for their lives, as to whether the gun someone has is lethal or not. They should be allowed to believe a gun is a gun, for the sake of protecting themselves.
JMHO
This Mother story sounds fishy to me, could this have been a law suite set up.
If I threaten to shoot someone and my parents though I have a BB gun, my father would have taken away from me then beat me with it.
The mother then goes on to tell the police her son is trigger by Police. Leading the police believe her son could be armed and would shoot on site of a uniform.
Who taught her son to be scared of the police?
Unless they are, as rip van byeDUHn mentioned, ‘unarmed with a knife’ kind of teenagers.
“We have to reopen our state mental hospitals.”
Is there enough room for politicians?
“He sees the badge and he automatically thinks you are going to kill him or he has to defend himself in some way,” she said.
Mental illness or autism? Probably a good bet.
Bus loads of white "protesters" doing a U-turn and heading back to Portland
True, but the mere suspicion of having a real gun isn't enough reason to shoot someone. There ought to be an actual imminent threat. What was it here?
[Actually, they didn’t “take him out” but he probably has several million dollars worth of medical expenses in front of him. ]
Again, maybe I’m too cynical. What I’ve discovered with many news items, however, is that I’ve not been cynical enough.
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