Lacy said the family also reported that after the shooting, the family was forced out of the home while officers “rummaged through their house looking for any justification for shooting and killing Ryan”.
Edit: Ok, I read the article. Yeah, him charging at the cop with that tool was a really bad move. I still think the situation could have been handled differently. Could have.
Tasers, batons, or just run away. Diffuse the situation. Imagine a judge saying "You charged against a cop with a gardening tool? Sentenced to DEATH!"
The boy didn't get a fair trial. He was murdered with no justification.
That's basically what their elected prosecutor will say, I've seen it a lot. They'll say "he has a weapon and was committing a crime, so the shooting was justified." That's what they said when my local pd shot a kid in the back when he was running away. He hadn't done anything but run away and was killed.
Edit: Ok, I read the article. Yeah, him charging at the cop with that tool was a really bad move. I still think the situation could have been handled differently. Could have.
Police in other countries are constantly able to non-lethally subdue people wielding knives. Do not normalize this reaction.
As a father of a child with Autism I feel I am more than adequately equipped to respond to this.
I don't think many, if any, neurotypical people understand how Autism can impact a person's ability to process the world in a way that is deemed "normal". This child may not be verbal, may have aggression issues, may have a learning disability, etc.
The last thing that should have happened is someone pulling a gun.
I cry thinking something like this could happen with my son. All it takes is one bad interaction with someone who has absolutely no experience with Autism and this can happen.
For anyone reading this, do yourself a favour. Volunteer with autistic people. It could be at school or in the community but you all need to learn that Autism does not look like the doctor in The Good Doctor.
I cry thinking something like this could happen with my son.
Gotta prepare him for when he is antagonized
My nephew is autistic, ODD and goes violent when going overboard
The more he is antagonized young, the better he learns how to deal with it. He is getting much better at understanding himself and controlling himself in situations he wouldn't have a few years ago
He was attacking people and hurting people already. This isn't a situation where he was irritated and the corner and someone provoked him, he was already violent when the officer's arrived.
I posted a similar comment before seeing your more eloquent reply. All I can say is you are 100% right about this:
I don’t think many, if any, neurotypical people understand how Autism can impact a person’s ability to process the world in a way that is deemed “normal”. This child may not be verbal, may have aggression issues, may have a learning disability, etc.
And the people who should MOST be aware of this? Those who we issue a gun and a badge.
In Canada (afaik) cops rarely kill anyone who is not wielding a gun, this includes people out of their minds on drugs wielding knives. They are usually able to disarm and subdue the suspect by non-lethal means.
The idea that a 15 year old kid running at a cop should be shot on sight is absolutely absurd and only normalized in the US, please reconsider your perspective.
All that said cops still fucking suck in Canada and have a history of being racists and abusive.
I am 100% open to having my opinion changed, hense "afaik" and my last sentence. Sending me news articles proves nothing since my wording was 'rarely' not 'never'.
A quick google search shows that police in Canada killed 30% less people per capita (in 2022), so it seems our cops are a little bit less shitty but still pretty shitty.
... So why didn't the officers just fucking leave the house?! There's no reason for them to stand their ground here. Retreat to safety and call for a crisis counselor and psychiatrist to come help. Call the boy's parents.
Fragile masculinity is why those pussy ass cops shot a kid. I hope it tortures them for the rest of their days. And I hope whenever they see a kid with autism from here on out, they're forced to realize what they've done.
The San Bernardino county sheriff’s department was responding to a 911 call on Saturday from a family reporting that a boy, identified as Ryan Gainer, was attacking his family at their home
If you watch the actual video the sheriff goes into the house to find him and the teenager comes charging out trying to attack him. The officer did leave, he fled while telling him to stop. He didn't stop and continued to chase him with the weapon and he was shot.
Father of an autistic teen here - very good chance that kid couldn't even begin to understand that the police gun would not only harm him, but kill him dead.
He possibly didn't understand or was too deep into an autistic meltdown (overstimulated fight or flight response) by that point to possibly comply with the commands from the officer, and (looking at my own son as an example) I doubt that he comprehended the seriousness of wielding such a weapon at the cop or at anyone.
My son knows he has to be careful with knives, and that he generally shouldn't touch them unsupervised.
Does he know he could hurt someone with it? Yes I think so.
Does he know it's even possible to stab someone to death with it? He doesn't even have a concept of "dead" vs "asleep" and has never witnessed a wound that couldn't be healed with a bandaid. Explaining these concepts in abstract is of very limited value with him.
They need to send more cops, and with nonlethals less lethals, and try harder not to kill these kids - many of whom exist in a world that almost entirely works in a way they don't understand, no matter how intelligent they may be otherwise.
Elijah McClain
Linden Cameron (not dead, but not for lack of trying)
Ryan Gainer
My list of "names of autistic kids shot or killed by cops" that I can list off without trying is slowly getting longer.
As I always say - I can't imagine more a of a nightmare than my son interacting with police while neither me nor my wife is present. I'd be less worried if he was playing in traffic. At least I can count on people driving down the street trying not to kill him. And that's really sad because I wish I could count on the help of police if ever he would need it.
Saw body cam footage like that once. Guy is on the ground bleeding out and the cop is searching the car for the gun that will justify it. Guy was bleeding out because when asked for his ID reached for his wallet