Ryan Gainer, 15, was fatally shot by a sheriff in southern California on Saturday. The incident occurred after police reacted to a 911 call from Gainer’s family, who claimed that their son was attempting to harm them. Ryan Gainer, a 15-year-old cross-country runner, had autism. According to The Guardian, the San Bernardino County Sheriff responded to the Gainer family’s 911 call in Apple Valley, east Los Angeles. The family claimed in the call that the 15-year-old autistic teenager was “actively assaulting family members and damaging property at the residence.”
No information has been revealed on how many times or where Gainer was shot
According to the sheriff’s department, Ryan was coming toward the deputy sheriff with five-foot-long gardening equipment when bullets were fired. Gainer was rushed to the hospital shortly after but was later declared dead. Body camera footage provided by the sheriff’s department shows the teen rushing toward the cop but stopping before the shooting occurred. Footage from the second officer’s body camera shows mayhem at the scene, with the first officer sprinting alongside the adolescent close behind the deputy. The lawyers of the Gainer family claimed that the officers took too long to administer first aid to the teenager. The family has also said that after the incident, they were forced to leave their home as officers “rummaged through their house.”
The Gainer family’s legal counsel is concerned about the sheriff’s department’s refusal to release the full body-camera footage. As of now, no information has been revealed on how many times or where Gainer was shot. According to the lawyers, Gainer was wounded with three rounds. The department spokesperson has also declined to identify the deputies on the scene. DeWitt Lacy, the family’s civil rights lawyer, has demanded that the whole body camera film be released so that investigators can determine what happened at the shooting site. “There are great questions as to whether it was appropriate to use deadly force against a 15-year-old autistic kid who was having an episode,” the attorney’s office said.
