Yesterday a good, sweet white American woman called 911 after her autistic 13 year-old son had a mental health crisis. US police intercepted the call, drove to her house and then shot her son multiple times as he tried to run away from them.
The US police, who have a long history of fatally shooting people for the crime of being mentally ill, were characteristically unapologetic:
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.
At a press conference, Sgt Horrocks said officers were called to a "violent psych issue" and reports that a boy - who they did not name - had made "threats to some folks with a weapon". He added that there was no indication when they attended that the boy was armed.
An officer shot the boy when he tried to flee on foot, Sgt Horrocks said.
According to an online fundraiser set up to raise money for medical bills, Linden Cameron has suffered "injuries to his shoulder, both ankles, intestines and bladder".
According to data compiled and regularly updated by the Washington Post, 1,254 people with a mental illness have been shot dead by US police since the beginning of 2015. This represents 22% of all people shot and killed by police across the country over that period.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54041549
