'Tell my mom I love her': Graphic body cam video shows officer shot 13-year-old boy with autism

[dalton99a]

https://www.wfla.com/news/tell-my-mom-i-love-her-graphic-body-cam-video-shows-officer-shoot-13-year-old-boy-with-autism/

‘Tell my mom I love her’: Graphic body cam video shows officer shoot 13-year-old boy with autism
by: Rick Aaron and Nexstar Media Wire
Posted: Sep 22, 2020 / 01:55 PM EDT

SALT LAKE CITY (KTVX) – The Salt Lake City Police Department released body camera video of an officer shooting a 13-year old boy with autism on Monday afternoon, an incident that Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Police Chief Mike Brown called “a tragedy.”

It was Friday night, September 4, when 13-year-old Linden Cameron’s mother called 911 to report that he was having a mental health crisis. Neighbors reported a person screaming in the middle of the street.

The video shows officers chasing Cameron on foot before catching up to him on a sidewalk.

“Get on the ground, get on the ground,” an officer is heard shouting. “On the ground now. On the ground.”

Then he fires a series of ten shots in rapid succession.

“I don’t feel good,” Cameron can be heard saying. “Tell my mom I love her.”

[Pachamama]

1. Crying....

[RestoreAmerica2020]

2. Ay dios..another child shot.. wtf is wrong with these cops..they're judge, jury and

..executioner. What has happen to the presummption of innoncence? In this case, no crime committed, a child is in distress rather than respond with care--he is shot -will there be justice for him?

A bedrock principle of the American criminal justice system is that a defendant accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This protection comes from the due process guarantees in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.”Oct 9, 2018
Classroom Law Project › resources
Presumption of Innocence - Classroom Law Project

[tblue37]

3. The child is not dead, but he was hit several times & is in hospital.

Linden Cameron: Autistic boy, 13, seriously injured after being shot multiple times by Utah police

Linden Cameron survived the shooting but is in a serious condition in hospital, his mother Golda Barton said.

He suffered broken bones and pierced organs and is "lucky to be alive", the family lawyer, Zach Weyher, said.

snip

[RestoreAmerica2020]

5. Thanks! Just corrected. Shot several times? I just don' t get it

..why another oprion wasn' t available when dealing with a person with disability--perhaps dispatch health reponse team instead of sending police death squad.

I know its tough out there for police they encounter thibgs we only see in movies but damn im afraid of a police storming my home than I am with a burgular. Like Briana Taylor ahot dead in her own house and today we found that noone will be indicted for her murder.

[tblue37]

4. He had no weapon, and was not anywhere near the cop when that idiot started shooting. nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. As a Mom who has a kid on the spectrum and another with ODD, and as an educator

who works with other kids with similar issues, this kills me. There is no need for this. They do calm down eventually when given a safe space and support. We need specialized intervention teams, not cops!!!!

[Withywindle]

7. I have several friends with children on the spectrum and this is their biggest fear

Especially the boys and especially the ones who aren't white.

Cops are brutal and aggressive and terrifying, and they respond to ANY non-standard non-immediately-obedient behavior with escalating aggression and violence - never mind if the person literally cannot hear or understand their demands, or mentally process them in the seconds before they start shooting.

And OF COURSE a non-neurotypical person with anxieties and sensory processing issues would run. That's a normal response to absolute terror. There is NEVER EVER an excuse for a cop shooting a terrified fleeing person in the back. Ever. Yet it still keeps happening, and they keep getting acquitted for it.

Families put up signs on their houses saying AN AUTISTIC PERSON LIVES HERE (as if that's not a ridiculous invasion of privacy no one should have to do, but they're afraid for their loved ones' lives) and it still happens.

[Withywindle]

8. Do not ever call the cops on someone unless you're willing to have that person killed.

I hate to say it, but this is where we are right now. No mental health checks, no well-being checks, none of that. Cops cradle their guns as a hammer, so the only problem they understand looks like a nail.

(Sole exception: if you're a woman calling the cops on a white man who's abusing you, they'll let him off scott free guaranteed.)

[pazzyanne]

9. This is why I believe that police need mental health professionals as part of their team!

Shot 10 times by a police officer who was dispatched when his mother called police to help her get him to a hospital. People with Autism often have "melt downs" and those of us who work with them do not shoot them! There are techniques that may require a little time to deescalate the autistic person, and then they can be taken to a hospital where they receive the help they need. This incident makes me cry angry tears!

[malaise]

10. These people are criminals in uniform

That is all

[Sunsky]

11. I have a teenage autistic child

I cannot watch the video. This terrifies me.
Years ago our local police department had a program where you register your child with special needs, as sort of an alert to them. It scared the heck out of me that we have to do that in this country. Would that program even help nowadays? We need standardized crisis intervention units because the evidence has shown that law enforcement officers promote escalation instead of de-escalation in a crisis situation.