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Utah police shoot 13-year-old boy with autism after mother calls 911

Authorities in Utah are investigating after a 13-year-old austistic boy was seriously injured after being shot by a police officer in Salt Lake City, according to his mother.

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Charlotte Police Department
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Authorities in Utah are investigating after a 13-year-old austistic boy was seriously injured after being shot by a police officer in Salt Lake City, according to his mother.

Utah police shoot 13-year-old

Golda Barton said that her son Linden Cameron, who has Asperger syndrome, experienced a “mental breakdown” earlier in the day.

It had been her first day back at work in nearly a year, and Linden was having trouble coping.

Breakdown and crisis

Barton, told KUTV-TV that she had called police because he was having a breakdown and needed a crisis intervention team.

Barton claimed she told police her son was unarmed and warned them that he did not know how to regulate his behavior.

Autistic Utah boy shot

A few minutes after two officers who had arrived went through the front door of the home, Barton said she heard an order to “get on the ground” and several gunshots.

“I said, ‘Look, he’s unarmed. He doesn’t have anything. He just gets mad and he starts yelling and screaming,” Barton told KUTV about her call to police.

“He’s a kid he’s trying to get attention. He doesn’t know how to regulate.”

No weapon was found Friday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Police’s account of shooting 13-year-old austistic boy

Police said they were called to a home in Glendale with a report of a boy who had threatened people with a weapon. The boy reportedly ran and was shot by an officer after being pursued by police.

The boy fled and as police chased after him, one officer fired their weapon and struck the child, Horrocks said.

Officers provided medical aid to the boy until medical personnel arrived, Horrocks said. He was then taken to a local hospital, according to police.

Linden’s injuries include damage to his shoulder, ankles, intestines, bladder and colon, as well as nerve damage, Barton told CNN.

The boy was recovering in the hospital and listed in serious condition. He had injuries to his shoulder, ankles, intestines and bladder, Barton said.

Salt Lake Mayor Erin Mendenhall said in a statement that the shooting was a tragedy and called for a swift and transparent investigation.

Police statement

According to KUTV, the police department issued a statement on Tuesday saying an investigation by law enforcement and the district attorney’s office is ongoing, and the city’s Civilian Review Board and police department’s internal affairs division will also conduct “parallel separate investigations.”


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Unheard Voices is an award-winning news magazine that started in 2004 as a local Black newsletter in the Asbury Park, Neptune, and Long Branch, NJ areas to now broaden into a recognized Black online media outlet. They are the recipient of the NAACP Unsung Hero Award and CV Magazine's Innovator Award for Best Social Justice Communications Company.

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Police

Family of Black girls handcuffed by Colorado police, held at gunpoint reach $1.9 million settlement

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Black girls held gunpoint Aurora
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The family of four Black girls who were wrongfully detained and held at gunpoint by Aurora, CO police have reached a settlement with the city.

Family of Black girls held at gunpoint reach settlement

Finalized on Monday, the families will collectively receive $1.9 million.

The settlement marks the latest payout the City of Aurora has been forced to make over officers’ excessive use of force.

In 2021, the city paid a $15 million settlement to Elijah McClain’s family, a 23-year-old Black man who died in 2019 after officers put him in a chokehold and paramedics injected him with ketamine.

The incident

In August 2020, four Black girls, ages 6, 12, 14 and 17, were held face down on the ground and put in handcuffs in a nail salon parking lot, crying and screaming, as officers towered over them.

Brittney Gilliam, the mother of the 6-year-old, was driving that Sunday morning with her relatives, because they were going to get their nails done together.

Wrongfully detained

But before they made it in the salon, Gilliam was detained after officers mistakenly thought she was driving a stolen S.U.V.

Police had mistakenly believed Gilliam was driving a stolen car.

And a simple second step police failed to take, resulted in the family being wrongfully detained.

Officers didn’t type in the plate number in a second database to show them the make of the vehicle. If they had, authorities said, the officers would have realized that the plate number was registered to a motorcycle in Montana.

Black girls and mother held at gunpoint traumatized

Dozens of bystanders watched the ordeal unfold, and video footage of the incident went viral, sparking protests over racial injustice, citing excessive force on Black Americans.

After the video went viral, Aurora police had apologized for their grave mistake, but the emotional trauma had already happened.

The Aurora Police Department said its officers are trained to draw their weapons before telling passengers to exit the vehicle and ordering them to lie on the ground, The Post reported.

Officers who held Black girls at gunpoint

One of the two officers who drew their guns and handcuffed members of the family was initially suspended.

However, he and the other officer that pulled his firearm remain on the police force, the New York Times reports.

To date, no officers were fired or charged in connection with the incident.


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2023 saw a record year of killings by police in U.S.

The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.

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2023 police killings increase
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The number of people killed by police in the United States reached a new high in 2023, according to new research.

2023 police killings increased dramatically

Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research group, dockets deaths at the hands of police officers. Last year, it recorded the highest number of killings since its national tracking began in 2013.

Statistics explained

The data reported that police officers killed 1,329 people in 2023, representing nearly a 19-percent increase over the 11-year span.

Nearly 90% of those killed were fatally shot, according to Abdul Nasser Rad, managing director of research and data at Campaign Zero, who runs Mapping Police Violence.

There were only 14 days without a police killing last year and on average, law enforcement officers killed someone every 6.6 hours, according to the report.

Meanwhile last year, the number of people killed by gunfire and officers killed in the line of duty declined, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There was an increase in the number of police officers shot.

The newly released data suggests a grim reality and a systemic crisis, with an average of about three people killed by officers each day, with slight increases in recent years. In 2022, 1,250 were killed by police.

The data also reported that Black people were about 2.8 times more likely to be killed by officers than their white counterparts between 2013 and 2023.

Recording police misconduct

For decades, many Americans have suffered various forms of brutality and injustice at the hands of “bad” law enforcement officers.

When a civilian puts in a complaint against the officer only a small percent of complaints result in the officer being disciplined —partly because the accusations are hidden.

Half of the battle is knowing who the “bad” law enforcement are and proper action being taken.

Missin Peace, a national police misconduct database that collects formal civilian complaints against law enforcement, helps fill that void.

In 2022, we had a conversation with the creators, who urged those who filed a complaint against an officer, to upload it on their website as well.

While there is still much work to do, it’s a start.


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14-year-old boy with autism tased by police in what family says was case of mistaken identity

An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.

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14-year-old autistic tased by police
Photo Source: ABC News video screenshot

An Illinois family is demanding answers after their 14-year-old autistic son was tased by police in what they maintain was a case of mistaken identity.

14-year-old autistic boy tased by police

In an interview with WLS Chicago, the family says that the teen, Avarius Thompson, suffered injuries, including a fractured hip, during an encounter with Dolton police on the morning of Nov.

Police’s incident report

According to the Dolton Police Department’s incident report, Dolton police were assisting police in the nearby neighborhood of Riverdale in the search for four Black males who had fled from a crashed, stolen vehicle, two of whom were allegedly carrying rifles and a handgun.

Dolton officers spotted two subjects, one of whom matched the description of a suspect sought in the incident, in a nearby backyard and pursued them, according to the incident report.

An officer pursuing Avarius ordered the teen to stop before tasing him, according to the incident report.

The incident was captured on the officer’s body-camera footage.

“Hands up! Hands up!” a Dolton police officer can be heard yelling in the body-camera footage as he runs toward Avarius with his Taser extended. After the teen jumps over a fence, the officer deploys the taser, the footage shows.

Avarius attempts to get up when the officer deploys his Taser again a few seconds later, the footage shows.

“Don’t move. Don’t move,” the officer says. “You move, you’re going to get some more.”

Avarius’ father, Eric Thompson, told WLS that the footage was “frightening.”

Read more on ABC News


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