Autistic teenager in Utah shot by police after mother calls for help

A 13-year-old boy in Glendale, Utah, was shot several times by police officers after his mother called 911 for help with his mental health crisis.

Linden Cameron, who has Asperger's, a form of autism, is now in a serious condition in hospital, his mother said.

Golda Barton said she had believed police attending on Friday night would use "the most minimal force possible".

Salt Lake City Police Sgt Keith Horrocks told reporters that the incident was now being investigated.

Speaking to local CBS-affiliate KUTV, Ms Barton said she told the 911 operator that her son needed to be taken to hospital for treatment.

He was experiencing a crisis because it was her first day back at work in almost a year and "he has bad separation anxiety", she said.

"I said, he's unarmed, he doesn't have anything, he just gets mad and he starts yelling and screaming," Ms Barton said. "He's a kid, he's trying to get attention, he doesn't know how to regulate."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54041549


In defense of Shaun King, he touched on this story a couple of days ago. It's already becoming old news though.  Too hard for anyone to make political hay out if this one.

This seems to me the biggest problem with shootings. Those with mental health issues. The number is high and its clear the Police lack training on how to deal with.

Cannot understand why the officer shot here, if the kid was trying to flee.

Has the officer been charged?

Little information of what occurred, but the boy was unarmed. Seems gross negligence by the officer

A story like this should be all over the media, but sadly some lives matter less these days

Didgee wrote:This seems to me the biggest problem with shootings. Those with mental health issues. The number is high and its clear the Police lack training on how to deal with.

Cannot understand why the officer shot here, if the kid was trying to flee.

Has the officer been charged?

Little information of what occurred, but the boy was unarmed. Seems gross negligence by the officer

A story like this should be all over the media, but sadly some lives matter less these days

I can't understand it. Nurses can handle people having episodes, but a couple of cops can't?

This will fade into obscurity pretty quickly. Only some tragedies can be used for political purposes. It's why despise the low life's that use tragedy like that.

you guys have a real serious problem with your cops....

Victorismyhero wrote:you guys have a real serious problem with your cops....

We have serious problem with a handful of them. We have a significant problem with the culture around policing. They are trained to be warriors, not servants. They see everyone (even 13 year old white boys) as a threat.

I show people videos of British cops handling people with knives or just being general jack asses. I tell/show them that the typical British Bobby is not meek and mild. They will throw your ass down and drag you to jail in a heartbeat. What they don't do is kill people to accomplish that. Granted we have more armed citizens, but shooting people with guns isn't typically the problem. It's shooting or killing people with far less lethal weapons or no weapons.

One of the biggest problems we have is we are divided into 3 camps. One large camp is only worried about Black folks being killed. The other large camp is going to back the Blue no matter what.

Then there are kooks like me that want serious police and judicial reform because it will make ALL of us safer. We are the small camp that most folks ignore.