An Autistic Teenager Shot by Police After Mother Calls 911

Is additional mental health training and awareness needed by law enforcement officers to help them handle mental health emergencies in a safer manner?

A thirteen-year-old boy, Linden Cameron, has been shot by police officers in Glendale, Utah, after his mother called 911 for assistance because her son was having a mental health crisis. Linden, who has Asperger’s a form of autism, is currently in a serious condition in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds.

Golda Berton, Linden’s mother, believed that when she phoned police for assistance with her son that the responding police would use “the most minimal force possible” when dealing with the situation.

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

It was during an interview with the CBS-affiliate KUTV that Ms. Barton said she told the 911 phone operator that her son needed to be taken to hospital for treatment. During the time of the incident, Linden was going through a mental health crisis because it was her first day returning to work after almost one year off, “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.”

This incident, among others, has raised the question again whether police officers are adequately trained to deal with people suffering a mental health crisis, or is there another solution? This question isn’t isolated to police forces in the United States, with similar things occurring worldwide in a variety of different countries.

At a press conference, Sgt Horrocks said that officers were called to a “violent psych issue,” They were operating on reports that a boy, who they did not name, had made “threats to some folks with a weapon.” He also added at the press conference that there was no indication when police officers arrived that the boy was armed. An officer shot the boy when he tried to escape police officers on foot, Sgt Horrocks said.