Boy, as yet unidentified, is third child killed by San Bernardino law enforcement in less than two years and second in under a month
Southern California sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a 17-year-old boy with mental health issues after he armed himself with a knife and locked himself inside a bathroom at a home, authorities said on Wednesday.
The teen was being transferred from a hospital, where he had been treated after cutting himself, to a mental health facility when he escaped on Tuesday, the San Bernardino county sheriff, Shannon Dicus, said.
The boy, a foster youth who lived in Hesperia, later showed up at a home in Victorville, about 90 miles (145km) east of Los Angeles, where his sisters live in foster care, Dicus said. Someone at the home called deputies to come arrest him, Dicus added, because he had caused trouble there before.
The teen, who had a knife, locked himself in a bathroom, and deputies tried to get him to come out for about a half-hour, according to the sheriff. But when the boy threatened to harm himself, deputies kicked down the door and tried to apprehend him, Dicus said.
Foster kid having a mental health crisis attempts suicide. When authorities attempt to forcibly admit him to a mental health facility, he runs away, seeking refuge with his only family. Police come, and he doesn’t want to go. Not back to the place he felt most desperately alone, not to the padded cell, he wants to be with his sister. They corner him in the bathroom. He tries to get them to leave him alone, using the only means he has available to him, threatening himself. Not anyone else, himself. So they busted in the door and beat him to it.
Were non-lethal options available? Yes. Were there other people who could have been outside that bathroom door, that would have talked him out without the need for violence? Yes. Was this boy murdered by cops because it was easier then requesting a trusted friend or counselor to help? Yes.
It’s tragic. If they sent out a social worker or someone similar instead, he would likely still be alive. I can’t believe we send out cops to deal with mental health issues.
I read about a lot of this police savagery stuff with disgust. But your comment is the first to make me actually break out sobbing. Well written.
That poor, poor, kid.
Let me fix that headline for you.
Taxpayer funded murderers murdered again - this time it was a mentally ill minor.
this time it was a mentally ill minor.
… again.
“I’m gonna harm myself!”
“NOT IF I KILL YOU FIRST”
Wtf America…
“Suicide is a crime. Shoot the criminal!” -SBPD, probably
I’m not gonna speculate, but this sort of situation could literally be ended by a guy in one of those dog bite suits they train police dogs on.
Why haven’t police come up with any sort of solution to a suspect with a knife? Hell even those sticks they use in Asia against knife attacks are pretty effective
Because cops in America all fancy themselves the Punisher (don’t even get me started on that) where everyone is out to get them and every one they shoot is one less bad guy on the street.
No incentive to change when they can get away with killing with impunity and fulfill their murder fantasies.
Asshole who shot this kid probably bragged to all his buddies about smoking a dude with a knife and got attaboys all around.
I refuse to even be near the police. Never let them catch or detain you. Never let them that close. It has been a lifetime game of keep away for me. Always leave. Never stick around. Don’t talk to them. It’s best that way.
In Germany they use chainmail.
They have multiple solutions to someone in this situation. A Tazer, pepper spray, brute physical force. Or just talk to the kid for a while, hear him out, and he will probably comply.
But nah, mag dump into the kid because you were scared is easiest.
Steroids
Cops should only be backup in a mental health situation if the person might be dangerous, not the only people there. They’re woefully unprepared to deal with it and are eager to shoot first in any event.
My ex worked for a county mental health crisis agency and this is how it worked. If something sounded dangerous they’d call the police out, but a trained psychologist would be the one engaging with the patient. She’d tell me stories of how she went into a suicidal guy’s house armed with a clipboard while he had a gun on the table.
Nobody she dealt with was killed. Though one guy who lived in the park had the cops take his dog and the dog was put to sleep.
It’s good to know that sometimes it’s done the right way. We need to make it standard operating procedure. It would have saved this kid’s life.
These exist in a lot of places, and I think it would be good if 911 operators were told to route mental health issues to them rather than to the police. They can then call in police if they think they’ll need them.
Then again, the time she got the suicidal guy to go to treatment the cops waited outside because they said it was too dangerous. So maybe they wouldn’t be that helpful after all.
the cops waited outside because they said it was too dangerous.
Better off that way. They probably would have shot him otherwise.
Police are woefully unprepared to deal with anything. I would not trust them to open up can of Spagetti-O’s.
Where do you think the “Uh oh” part of the old slogan came from?
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We can’t even trust them next to an oak tree.
Guns > Mental Health system
Did they also shoot the family dog on their way out? Jesus. ACAB.
Does this happen every time or do we just hear about it when a worthless murder-pig gets an itchy trigger finger?
You’re hearing about it because a cop got an itchy trigger finger. In any other place, they’d try talking the kid down and wouldn’t bust down doors unless hostages were being taken.
95% of the time the police get there, say “yep they’re mentally ill, but not doing anything illegal” and leave. That last 5% is trips to jail or the hospital (or both) and there’s a fraction of a percentage that ends in a shooting.
No one wants to hear about the boring stuff, though.
Well of course we hear about it when something untoward happens. That’s why it’s news.
There are over 700,000 cops in the US so if they all wanted to shoot at least one person a year each, we could see up to about 1,900 headlines a day. If evenly spread.
I guess that’s why they have to take out their violent tendencies on their spouses and other people’s dogs. Doesn’t make the headlines so much.
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There are few things that cops love more than murdering people with mental illnesses.
One of those things is killing dogs.
Pretty sure they like that even more. Statistically speaking.
“Defund the police” should have always been “Disarm the police”.
Can’t harm yourself if the cops harm you first.
17 year olds aren’t children, by definition. They’re minors, but not children.
They’re always someone’s children. Unless you were grown in a lab, then I don’t know what that would be.
By that logic, 60-year-olds are children. Is there anyone you consider an adult?
After living here a while, I have come to the conclusion all the adults are gone.
They’re inherently mutually exclusive if you go by that definition
Colloquially, no, they aren’t.
Legally, yes, they are.
I would generally call that person a child.
I think colloquially they often are as well.
Awful title that exists to manipulate people’s views.
Just because someone is mentally ill doesn’t mean they can’t be a threat to others and require lethal force to stop.
Except in this case they used lethal force to prevent the kid from harming himself. Great solution, boys!
I have come to realize cops are the ones who wrote x=x in math class then turned their test in.
“I am the greatest! O’Doyle rules!”
So a 17 year old with a knife being killed by cops is in any way justified?
Are you saying it’s never justified? Just say that.
Edit: You won’t because we both know it’s not true.
Kid threatened to hurt himself. Better go kill him before he can do that!
What kind of argument do you even think you’re making? He was deemed a threat to himself, not to others.
This was not one of those situations. Maybe read more than the title next time.
