Cops Taser 15 yr old AUTISTIC kid!!

[Joe Duffy]

Deputies subdue autistic boy with Taser




Taylor Karras, 15, of North Tustin sits on his bed as he talks with his mother, who is
upset with deputies for subduing the autistic boy with a stun gun. O.C. officials defend
the action.


The 15-year-old O.C. boy had run away from his parents and was dashing through traffic, authorities said.

By Jennifer Delson
September 19, 2007
Los Angeles Times

Orange County sheriff's deputies on Tuesday defended their decision to use a stun gun on a 15-year-old autistic boy who ran away from his parents and later dashed into traffic.

Using the Taser in this case "was the right thing to do," said Jim Amormino, a sheriff's spokesman. "If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car? The deputy made the right decision. . . . It could have saved [the boy's] life."

But Doris Karras, mother of Taylor Karras, said deputies did not need to use the Taser gun, particularly since she had called various police agencies to alert them that her son was missing.

She said her son would have followed deputies' directions if he hadn't felt threatened. "This was a very aggressive response," she said. She said her son "didn't have any weapon on him. He didn't even have a pencil."

Taylor fled during a visit to the Regional Center of Orange County in Westminster about 11:30 a.m. Monday. The family had gone there for counseling, which the boy did not want.

About nine hours later, his mother saw him about one block from their home -- 16 miles from the center -- on the ground and handcuffed by deputies.

Amormino said Tustin police called the Sheriff's Department after a pedestrian reported a suspicious person. Taylor was pushing a shopping cart down Newport Avenue near La Loma Drive, near his home in North Tustin. With no money, he apparently had walked home.

Doris Karras said her son, who is 5 feet 10 and has a beard, looks older than 15.

Amormino said Taylor yelled something when approached by a deputy, then ran across Newport Avenue, causing two cars to swerve. It was then that a deputy shot him with a Taser gun.

The deputy handcuffed the youth to keep him out of traffic, Amormino said.

Taser guns use compressed nitrogen to propel two darts that attach to the body. The darts are connected to the gun by a wire and deliver a 50,000-volt shock at five-second intervals to incapacitate a suspect.

[chrisn]

I guess they wanted to be as cool as the Gainesville PD?

[Matt The Funk]

In a way I don't see this as bad is it could have been (him being hit), but it's still pretty fucked up. I feel for the family and hope the cop changes his actions and gets a hard slap on the wrists, and this serves as an example of what to do, and what not to do.

[Mint boi]

this ones kinda weird; so they tased him because he looked suspicious and ran into traffic? Well it seems the American police are getting value for money with their taser guns this month

[Sitbcknchill]

You guys wouldn't justify something the police did no matter what happened. Officers aren't always in the wrong and sometimes need to do what they need to do. Regardless of age or handicap. "Amormino said Taylor yelled something when approached by a deputy, then ran across Newport Avenue, causing two cars to swerve". That right there should have been enough for the need to do something immediately. The kid was a danger to himself and the community around him putting lives at risk. As you see though everything turned out fine and everyone still has their life.

[Woodman]

Originally Posted by Sitbcknchill

You guys wouldn't justify something the police did no matter what happened. Officers aren't always in the wrong and sometimes need to do what they need to do.
... The kid was a danger to himself and the community around him putting lives at risk. As you see though everything turned out fine and everyone still has their life.

Yup!

I have to say that's completely true.

Now if it was ME, I would probably have been shot (just my luck, I guess).
...but at that age I just might have been drunk enough not to give a shit, anyway.

"Autistic," you say?
Shame on you, I say!

We might be related.

[Mint boi]

yeh i guess your right, this situation could have ended up alot worse if the cop hadn't acted, and he would have been blamed for not doing something had someone been injured or killed.

[Nagognog2]

There was an autistic 14 year old in my old town. She got out of her short-bus to go home. Guess she thought she was a snowman or something: She jumped in front of a snowplow coming up the street. SPLAT!

I'd have tasered her. Instead they busted the snowplow driver.

[Joe Duffy]

Would something like a rubber bullet not have been more effective?

[sarbanes]

When you couch a story out of context, you can make Mother Theresa sound like the Devil, and Hitler look like a saint. I wasn't there, but can imagine someone who is *just* walking into a situation seeing the potential death and damage this person could cause (and almost caused) needed to be immobilized as quickly as possible. The boy's safety was actually a 2ndary concern, but was treated with value by the officer who used, technically, non-lethal force. We all know tasers have been associated with rare deaths, but until quite recently, taser use alone was considered to be benign.
Like it or not, the truth is that this is one of those situations where it is politically correct (to this community), to necessarily be anti-cop. I am one of those as well, but when I try to see "beyond my-self", I can see the other side.
Saying something like this won’t win me any popularity brownie points. But I believe it to be true.

[allyourbase]

Dont Tase Me Bro!

[KBLSD]

i tased one of my friends once and ive been tased it hurts pretty bad when i was tased they left it on my skin to long and it burnt me