A 13-year-old boy with autism was shot by the police after they arrived at his house to assist their mother in dealing with him after he got into a mental breakdown.
Golda Barton, the mother of the victim, said that Linden Cameron, her son, was having trouble coping up with the fact that she was returning to work for the first time in nearly 1 year.
During a mental breakdown, the mother called the police and asked for a crisis intervention team to help manage the situation and get her son’s treatment.
When the police came, hell broke loose on the mother.
Golda said that when her son saw the police, he ran away. Then she just heard someone yelling to get on the ground 3 times, which were then followed by gunshots.
Linden was shot. His shoulder, ankles, intestines, bladder, colon, and some nerves ended up getting injured in the horrible incident.
During an interview with KUTV, Golda talked about her call to the police.
She said:
I said, ‘Look, he’s unarmed. He doesn’t have anything. He just gets mad and he starts yelling and screaming’. He’s a kid he’s trying to get attention. He doesn’t know how to regulate. Why didn’t they tase him? Why didn’t they shoot him with a rubber bullet? He’s a small child. Why don’t you just tackle him? You are big police officers with massive amounts of resources.They’re supposed to come out and be able to de-escalate a situation using the most minimal force possible.
Sgt. Keith Horrocks, with the Salt Lake City Police, said that officers were called to the area because a boy was having a “psychological episode”.
The police officer also said that the boy had made threats to some folks with a weapon.
However, no weapon was found at the scene.
The incident is currently being investigated by a team that is consisting police officers from the West Valley City Police Department.