California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool

juicy@lemmy.todaybanned from community to News@lemmy.world – 762 points –
California officer shoots and kills boy, 15, holding gardening tool
theguardian.com
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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”.

Not a good look.

They don't care how bad it looks cause they get away with it

They constantly get away with it too, i wonder what the stat is for the amount of cops that get put away for misconduct like this versus the ones that don't, it's gotta be like 1 out of every 10/100/1000 or something similar.

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

Probably should go watch the actual video: https://dailycaller.com/2024/03/11/ryan-gainer-video-deputy-fatally-shooting-15-year-old-boy-autism/?utm\_source=ground.news&utm\_medium=referral

He's told to drop it, and literally chases the officer out of the house with it trying to kill him. Bodycam from 2 angles.

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.

He was murdered, if you shoot someone in the back while they are fleeing you are a murderer.

The cop that shot him is a murderer and a coward.

Yeah, and the states attorney started her excuses with "he was committing a crime" as if execution is the correct answer for running away from police.

In this case it was the police that was fleeing and the person getting shot was chasing him with a raised gardening hoe. He could have shot him in the house the first moment he started approaching him. He didn't. He told him to stop or they'll shoot. He didn't stop so the police started running away in order to avoid shooting him. He followed. Didn't leave them much choice.

Didn't leave them much choice.

Wrong. The murderer chose to shoot and kill the kid. That was the choice they made.

They could have...just run away to a safe distance. But they chose to shoot and murder the kid.

Could have tried to disarm them. Too risky? Run away.

Stop making excuses for poorly trained thugs with guns killing unarmed citizens.

The cop was literally running away when he shot him.

When I am running away from something to escape danger I do not do so facing the danger and aiming a gun.

I guess you and that cop have a better method of running away from danger that somehow isn't primarily concerned with increasing safety by maximizing distance from the danger?

You suggesting running away indicated to me that you didn't watch the video and thus don't have a clear view of what actually happened there. If you did, then my bad.

Knowing american cops, I wouldn't be surprised if he was physically unable to outrun the guy.

He also could have just used the taser instead of the gun. The boy was, what, 150lbs?

Being black adds 150 lbs of pure muscle and testosterone-fueled rage. Poor cop was basically facing a sword wielding grizzly bear.

/s

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.

Thanks. I'm really not normalizing this, though it's a good suggestion for other readers.

There was a video posted on reddit, where a cop got stabbed in the neck and died because he was slow to shoot, batons are worthless

lol batons aren't worthless.

I'll believe you once you manage to out-fence an assailant with a sharp-edged weapon with your worthy baton

You never know! I may not be able to, but what if I may?

It seems like you're saying that batons are worthless for this situation, which may be true.

But your original comment seemed more general, as in "batons are worthless [all the time]," which is not true.

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.

... 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.

That's why they shouldn't call the cops when a person of color is involved. The police will just kill them.

As ADA Krause said in the Rittenhouse trial said, "We all take a beating sometimes."

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The cop was literally running from the kid, while the kid was swinging his weapon. The cop certainly wasn't "standing his ground".

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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.

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.

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