Examples of Police Shootings

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.

The killing of Victor Perez is just one example.

Deon J. Hampton at NBC:

For many advocates, Perez’s killing called to mind other examples of young people with autism who have been killed by police. Ryan Gainer, 15, was killed in March 2024 after charging toward a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy while holding a 5-foot-long garden tool.

Deputies were responding to a 911 call from the home that the teen had been “actively assaulting family members” and damaging property.

After the shooting, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in a statement, “Our social safety net for those experiencing mental illness needs to be strengthened.”

In February, Chase de Balinhard, a 15-year-old with autism, was killed by police in Vancouver, Canada, when they responded to an emergency call about an armed person in distress. Police saw the child holding a gun; it was later determined that he was carrying a pellet gun.

Eric Parsa, 16, was killed when sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana, responding to the teen’s mental crisis at a shopping center, pinned him down for nine minutes in 2020.

An officer sat on the teen’s rear end for about seven minutes, after which another deputy took his place. Eventually, seven deputies were “sitting on, handcuffing, shackling, holding down, or standing by E.P. as he was restrained and held face down on his stomach against the hard surface of the parking lot,” the station reported citing a lawsuit filed by the family.

Kennedy Cuts

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

Eric M. Garcia at The Independent:

Kennedy’s department cut a grant that would have helped reduce suicide among autistic LGBT+ people.

Last year, the National Institutes of Health awarded a grant to Laura Graham Holmes, the professor at Hunter College in New York and a project leader for the ALIVE, which would have looked into interventions for sexual and gender minority autistic people.

Graham Holmes told The Independent she wanted to research this subject because of the fact that a large number of autistic people identify as LGBT+. Numerous studies have shown a significant overlap between autistic and transgender identity. Many autistic people also identify as nonbinary.

“What we know about this this group is that there are higher rates of mental health conditions,” she said. “So I've done some research using electronic medical records and found that, you know, we already know that autistic people have higher rates of depression and anxiety.”

Graham Holmes said that she learned about the grant being terminated last month when her dean told her that it would be canceled.
...
Graham Holmes emphasized how many autistic LGBT+ people have little contact with their families and face high rates of suicide.

Autism Organizations Speak Out Together

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in campaign politics.   In the 2016 campaign, a number of posts discussed Trump's bad record on disability issues more generally.   As his words and actions have shown, he despises Americans with disabilities.   

He is so bad that organizations that often battle with one another have united against him.

From ASAN:

As national organizations dedicated to advancing the well-being of Autistic individuals, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autism Society of America, Autism Speaks, The Arc of the United States, Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network, Autistic People of Color Fund, and partners across the disability and public health sectors stand united in our call for science-based decision-making and increased investment in the research, programs and services the Autism community needs to live fully.

We are deeply concerned by growing public rhetoric and policy decisions that challenge these shared principles. Claims that Autism is “preventable” is not supported by scientific consensus and perpetuate stigma. Language framing Autism as a “chronic disease,” a “childhood disease” or “epidemic” distorts public understanding and undermines respect for Autistic people.

At the same time, federal proposals to reduce funding for programs like Medicaid, the Department of Education, and the Administration for Community Living threaten the very services that Autistic individuals and their families rely on. Research must be guided by credentialed experts and inclusive of the complexity and diversity of the lived experiences of the Autism community—not redirected by misinformation or ideology. As leaders in the fields of Autism and public health, we are committed to contributing meaningfully to the ongoing dialogue and initiatives led by HHS.

We urge public leaders, institutions, and media to uphold scientific integrity and work together to strengthen—not weaken—the infrastructure of support for the entire Autism community.

Signed By:
Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Colin Killick, Executive Director
Autism Society of America, Christopher Banks, President and CEO
Autism Speaks, Keith Wargo, President and CEO
The Arc of the United States, Katy Neas, Chief Executive Officer
Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Sharon daVanport, Executive Director
Autistic People of Color Fund, Ly Xīnzhèn Zhǎngsūn Brown, Founding Executive Director
Autism Empowerment, Karen Krejcha, Co-Founder, Executive Director
Dan Marino Foundation, Mary Partin, CEO

Full List of Endorsing Organizations (Rolling Sign On):
American Association of People with Disabilities
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
TASH
Allies for Independence
Institute for Exceptional Care
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
American Association on Health and Disability
Lakeshore Foundation
National Health Law Program
Tourette Association of America
Family Voices National
National Down Syndrome Congress
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR)
Epilepsy Foundation
The Center for Learner Equity
Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered
Caring Across Generations
SPAN Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN)
National Disability Rights Network
American Music Therapy Association
Access Ready Inc
Mission Alpha Advocacy

Center for Public Representation

Measles Cases Keep Increasing

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

Doc Louallen and Youri Benadjaoud at ABC:

The U.S. measles outbreak has reached 800 confirmed cases across 24 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. The latest update shows 88 new cases from the previous week, marking what health officials describe as a concerning trend in 2025.

The current outbreak has claimed two lives, with a third death under investigation, according to state health officials. The surge in cases is nearly triple the total number reported in 2024, when the nation recorded 285 cases.

If this year's cases continue to grow at the current rate, the U.S. could surpass the 2019 total of 1,274 cases, potentially reaching the highest level since 1992, per data.

RFK Tries to Clean Up

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

Isabel van Brugen at The Daily Beast:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in full damage-control mode after causing outrage with his comments about autism during his first official press briefing as health secretary.

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, attempted to dial back the controversy in a sit-down Thursday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

He had triggered a firestorm by claiming that people with autism—a neurodevelopmental disorder—will never play baseball, go out on dates, pay taxes, write poems, or hold down a job. He also described autism as a “preventable disease” caused by a mysterious environmental toxin.

Kennedy has long claimed a link between vaccines and autism. The Health and Human Services Department’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reportedly conducting a study examining potential links between vaccines and autism—despite the theory having been thoroughly debunked by extensive scientific research.

“You actually got emotional yesterday while talking about children suffering from [autism],” Hannity said. “You said they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never pay taxes… people mistook that. Then you said they’ll never play baseball… they’ll never go out on a date, they’ll never be able to live unassisted lives.”

Kennedy attempted to clarify that he wasn’t referring to all people with diagnosed with autism, but only to those who are “nonverbal”, meaning that they do not communicate using spoken language.

“Let me say this,” he told Hannity. “There are many kids with autism who are doing well. They’re holding down jobs, they’re getting pay checks, they’re living independently. But I was referring specifically to that 25 percent—the group that is nonverbal.”

“That was clear,” Hannity responded.

No it wasn't. And RFK apparently does not know that there are nonspeaking autistic people who go to college. 

RFK said he has never met autistic people his own age.  But when his father visited Willowbrook in 1964, many of the people he saw were surely autistic people with misdiagnoses of "mental retardation" or schizophrenia.

RFK Jr. Strikes Again

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

Tina Reed at Axios:

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the unusual step of publicly contradicting one of his own agencies' autism studies on Tuesday, suggesting at a press conference that "environmental factors" including drugs, not improved screening, were causing a spike in confirmed cases.

Why it matters: Kennedy's assertion that researchers and the media are engaging in what he called "epidemic denial" around the condition could further stoke vaccine skepticism and broader public trust in science, experts say.Patient advocates also contend categorizing the condition as a disease could steer attention and funding away from efforts to accommodate people with autism.
...

Catch up quick: Kennedy abruptly called his first Washington press conference after the Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday released a study which found one in 31 U.S. children are diagnosed with autism by their eighth birthday.The figure was 1 in 54 in 2016, per the agency.

The study cited an uptick "might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices."

Differences in insurance coverage were also cited as a possible contributor.

Wednesday's packed event at HHS headquarters was tightly controlled, with only a handful of news outlets being offered the chance to ask questions.

...

Zoom in: Kennedy has tapped David Geier, who has a history of promoting the discredited vaccine-autism link to lead what he termed a global effort to identify the cause of autism. He said it would be concluded by September. Over the weekend, the FDA's former top vaccine official Peter Marks warned the preconceptions and unrealistic timeline of this research would likely lead to flawed conclusions.S

CDC Gets Prevalence Right, for Now

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the uncertainty surrounding estimates of autism prevalence

Azeen Ghorayshi at NYT:

The percentage of American children estimated to have autism spectrum disorder increased in 2022, continuing a long-running trend, according to data released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among 8-year-olds, one in 31 were found to have autism in 2022, compared with 1 in 36 in 2020. That rate is nearly five times as high as the figure in 2000, when the agency first began collecting data.

The health agency noted that the increase was most likely being driven by better awareness and screening, not necessarily because autism itself was becoming more common.

That diverged sharply from the rhetoric of the nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who on Tuesday said, “The autism epidemic is running rampant.”

The conclusion of the report:

Autism prevalence among children aged 8 years increased from 2020 to 2022. Prevalence in 2022 continued to vary widely across sites. Differences in prevalence over time and across sites can reflect differing practices in ASD evaluation and identification and availability and requirements that affect accessibility of services (e.g., meeting financial or diagnostic eligibility requirements). A/PI, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial children continued to have higher prevalence of ASD than White children, and children in low MHI or high vulnerability communities for five sites had higher prevalence of ASD than children in high MHI or low vulnerability communities. As evidence grows of increased access to identification among previously underserved groups, attention might shift to what factors, such as SDOH [social determinants of health], could lead to higher rates of disability among certain populations. A higher rate of ASD identification by 48 months was found among children born in 2018 compared with children born in 2014. The cohort born in 2018 received more evaluations and ASD identifications than the cohort born in 2014 did during the same age window; disruption was visible at COVID-19 pandemic onset in early 2020 but the pattern of higher identification reappeared by the end of 2020. Continued increases in prevalence and improvements in early identification of ASD could indicate increasing need for services. Opportunities exist to learn from successful policies, systems, and practices in different communities and implement approaches for equitable identification or service eligibility to help families or persons receive the support they need as early as possible to improve outcomes for children with ASD.

RFK's False Promise

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.   And among those diseases could be COVID-19.

Antivaxxers are sometimes violent, often abusive, and always wrong.  

 At NBC, Brandy Zadrozny reports on the Autism Health Summit:

The conference room at the Town and Country hotel was already abuzz with Kennedy’s latest bombshell. While rattling off his department’s early endeavors at a televised Cabinet meeting last week — they included getting “bad chemicals” out of food and “good food” into school lunches — he stated plainly that he would, in five months, discover the cause of autism. “By September,” he had said to the president, “we will know what has caused the autism epidemic. And we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

“That would be so big,” Trump replied.

And it would — if it weren’t so unlikely. Kennedy later told Fox News that National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya had only just begun soliciting proposals from scientists around the world, and HHS hasn’t said more about the timeline. Even if they handed out grants immediately, it would give them barely more than a season to solve a puzzle that has preoccupied researchers for over 80 years.

...

Outside the ballroom were the vendors, about 50 tables packed together, all offering the same message: healing was possible — for a price.

Each table pushed a product or service promising some pathway to wellness. There were water filters — one to detoxify, another to “alkalize”— and a nearly $6,000 electromagnetic gadget that claimed to improve circulation.

Contraptions emitted infrared light or pulsed electromagnetic fields. Supplement kits promised to flush out mold, heavy metals and microplastics. Vibrating plates were pitched as neurological reset tools. And there were countless devices — necklaces, patches, laptop shields, pet collars and full-body blankets — meant to block 5G, electromagnetic fields and radiation, including the Wi-Fi all around us.

Autistic San Francisco Supervisor

In The Politics of Autism, I write:  "Support from the general public will be an important political asset for autistic people. Another will be their sheer numbers, since a larger population of identified autistic adults will mean more autistic voters and activists."  Previous posts have discussed autistic officeholders and political candidates in California,  New York, Georgia, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Han Li at the San Francisco Standard:

Growing up, Bilal Mahmood knew he was different. He struggled with making eye contact, shaking hands, and hugging others. Building friendships didn’t come easily.

In 2021, when he entered San Francisco politics — a world that demands constant social interaction and public speaking — he sought medical help, and in his mid-30s, he was officially diagnosed with Level 1 autism, a mild form of the disorder that affects his communication, behaviors, and ways of thinking.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about autism, and we’re seeing a trend of more people sharing their personal stories,” Mahmood told The Standard in an interview. “We have to destigmatize autism.”

April is Autism Awareness Month, and the newly elected District 5 supervisor, who represents the Tenderloin, Fillmore, and Japantown, is expected to discuss his autism diagnosis at the Tuesday board meeting and plans to use his own history to bring attention and resources to the often-overlooked neurodivergent community.

A tech entrepreneur, Mahmood lost a bid for state Assembly in 2022 but won a seat on the Board of Supervisors in 2024. In private conversations during those campaigns, he said, he was “taken aback” by questions about his ability to hold public office as an autistic person.

Christien Kafton at KTVU-TV:

Autistic Kid Dies After Police Shooting

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.

MARTHA BELLISLE and REBECCA BOONE at AP:

An autistic, nonverbal teenage boy who was shot repeatedly by Idaho police from the other side of a chain-link fence while he was holding a knife died Saturday after being removed from life support, his family said.

Victor Perez, 17, who also had cerebral palsy, had been in a coma since the April 5 shooting, and tests Friday showed that he had no brain activity, his aunt, Ana Vazquez, told The Associated Press. He had undergone several surgeries, with doctors removing nine bullets and amputating his leg.

Police in the southeast Idaho city of Pocatello responded to a 911 call reporting that an apparently intoxicated man with a knife was chasing someone in a yard. It turned out to be Perez, who was not intoxicated but walked with a staggered gait due to his disabilities, Vazquez said. His family members had been trying to get the large kitchen knife away from him.

A Bonkers Week with RFK Jr.

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS. 

On Thursday, RFK Jr. pledged to find the cause of autism by September. Christina Jewett at NYT:

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and expert on environmental toxins, pointed to the current mass layoffs and cutbacks for research at Mr. Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services as one reason for doubting such quick progress.

“Given that a great deal of research on autism and other pediatric diseases in hospitals and medical schools is currently coming to a halt because of federal funding cuts from H.H.S.,” he said, “it is very difficult for me to imagine what profound scientific breakthrough could be achieved between now and September.”

...

“We are launching requests to scientists from all over the country and all over the world,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News. “Everything is on the table: our food system, our water, our air, different ways of parenting, all the kind of changes that may have triggered this epidemic.”

In the interview, Mr. Kennedy also said an important part of the effort would be to compare autism rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. It’s an angle that many scientists dismiss, saying that parents who vaccinate their children are also more likely to get a diagnosis, given higher rates of interaction with health providers.

Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech at The Hill:

“We find that unrealistic and misleading,” President and CEO of The Autism Society of America Christopher Banks told The Hill.

Banks and The Autism Society of America’s Chief Marketing Officer Kristyn Roth agreed that there is a “significant need” for more investment and credentialed research to better understand autism spectrum disorder.
...
The speed at which Kennedy is promising to find the cause of the disability is harmful to those struggling during an autism diagnosis as well, Roth added.

‘It’s giving people a lot of false hope,” she said. “True, rigorous, peer-reviewed science takes time to find quality answers.”  

Alexander Tin at CBS:

A top federal health official ousted by the Trump administration denounced Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claim that he would be able to determine the cause of autism by September, warning against offering "false hope" to families.

"There are people, probably, who are hearing me now who know that I cared for leukemia patients for a significant number of years. Giving people false hope is something you should never do," said Dr. Peter Marks, in an interview Friday with "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

 Adam Cancryn, Lauren Gardner and David Lim at Politico:

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s visit to the FDA Friday was supposed to introduce him as a trusted leader to agency employees. It did anything but.

Over the course of 40 minutes, Kennedy, in largely off-the-cuff remarks, asserted that the “Deep State” is real, referenced past CIA experiments on human mind control and accused the employees he was speaking to of becoming a “sock puppet” of the industries they regulate.

“Because of my family’s commitment to these issues, I spent 200 hours at Wassaic Home for the Retarded when I was in high school,” Kennedy said, in a reference to the Wassaic State School for the Mentally Retarded in Wassaic, New York. “So I was seeing people with intellectual disabilities all the time. I never saw anybody with autism.”

The remark jolted several FDA employees in the audience, who misheard the reference and thought he was making a derogatory remark about people with intellectual disabilities, according to two employees granted anonymity for fear of retaliation.

By the end of the event, billed as a welcome from the new commissioner, Marty Makary, several FDA staffers had walked out of the rooms where the speech was being broadcast at the agency’s headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, according to two employees granted anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Aria Bendix at NBC:

In an interview Wednesday with CBS News, Kennedy said the Trump administration was focused on finding ways to treat people who choose not to get vaccinated. However, there are no approved treatments for measles, which kills almost 3 out of every 1,000 people diagnosed.

Many medical experts have taken issue with his approach to the current measles outbreak, which has included emphasizing unproven treatments and framing vaccination as a personal choice (which some doctors view as a nod to his anti-vaccine supporters).

Kennedy also suggested that measles cases are inevitable in the United States because of ebbing immunity from vaccines — a notion doctors say is false.

 Devi Shastri at AP:

U.S. measles cases topped 700 as of Friday, capping a week in which Indiana joined five others states with active outbreaks, Texas grew by another 60 cases and a third measles-related death was made public.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed in a televised Cabinet meeting Thursday that measles cases were plateauing nationally, but the virus continues to spread mostly in people who are unvaccinated and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention redeployed a team to West Texas.

Trump and Kennedy Spout Vaccine Nonsense

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.

A number of posts discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion.

 Another leading anti-vaxxer is presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has repeatedly compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.  Rolling Stone and Salon retracted an RFK article linking vaccines to autism.  He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

He is now Trump's secretary of HHS.  

Autistic Self Advocacy Network:

Today in a cabinet meeting, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that “by September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we will be able to eliminate those exposures.” This alarming claim is untrue, impossible, and ableist. Like the hiring of David Geier, RFK Jr.’s comment is a clear signal that HHS intends to produce rigged and fraudulent research that supports Kennedy and Trump’s pre-existing beliefs in a connection between autism and vaccines.

April 10 Cabinet Meeting:

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: :And we have now the autism rates have gone from now most recent numbers we think are going to be about one in thirty-one from one in twelve. So, they’re going up again from one in ten thousand when I was a kid. And we are going at your direction.

We are going know by September. We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world. By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, it was one in ten thousand children had autism, and now it’s one in thirty-one. Not thirty-one thousand, thirty-one. That’s a horrible statistic, isn’t it? And there’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this. So you think you’re going to have a pretty good idea,

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: We will know by September. There will be no bigger news conference on that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So that’s it. If you can come up with that answer where you stop taking something, you stop eating something or maybe it’s a shot, but something is causing it. It can’t be from 10,000 to… can you imagine that, Marco? That’s a big number. Thank you very much. You’re doing great. Thank you, Bobby.

Pocatello Police Shoot Autistic Teen

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss interactions between police and autistic people.  When cops encounter autistic people, they may not respond in the same way as NT people, and things can get out of hand. Among other things, they may misinterpret autistic behavior as aggressive or defiant. Training could help.

Christopher Cann at USA Today:

A community in southeastern Idaho is demanding answers after police officers shot a disabled teenager from behind a chain-link fence seconds after they responded to his house and he approached them with a knife.

The teen, 17-year-old Victor Perez, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, was shot nine times, his family told local news outlets. As of Tuesday, he remained in the hospital in critical condition and one of his legs was amputated.

The incident occurred Saturday evening in the city of Pocatello, where police responded to a 911 call reporting a physical disturbance involving a person with a knife and three other people. Within 20 seconds of officers' arrival, police shot Perez in the backyard of his home.

Video of the incident quickly circulated online and sparked outrage, with family members and neighbors questioning why police did not do more to de-escalate the situation or use non-lethal weapons. Perez's family members said he was in the midst of a behavioral episode, but that they can always get him under control when he's agitated.