15 year old autistic boy tasered

[Guest guest]

Deputies subdue autistic boy with Taser

Don Bartletti / LAT

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 Delson

September 19, 2007

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 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. "

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. 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 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.

jennifer.delson@...

September 18, 2007

OC Deputies Taser, Cuff 15-Year-Old Autistic Boy

Karras was reported missing by his mother yesterday, after

running away from a Westminster social services facility where he was

receiving therapy for autism.

Around 9:30 p.m., the 15-year-old boy was found just a block from his

North Tustin home. Orange County Sheriff's deputies spotted Karras

pushing a shopping cart in the street, chased him on foot, Tasered

him once, and handcuffed him.

Only when a passing neighbor recognized Karras did the authorities

realize he had been reported missing nearly ten hours earlier and

that he had a disability.

Karras's mother, Doris, said she saw the entire incident and

felt the police action was excessive. " He had been stopping at bus

stops and reading the maps to find his way home, " she said.

OC Sheriff Lt. Hal Brotheim claimed that Karras took off running

through traffic when the deputies approached him. Traffic in

unincorporated North Tustin at 9:30 p.m. on a Monday night.

Photo by Willie Stark via flickr.

Sep 20, 2007 6:59 am US/Pacific

Deputies Use Taser To Subdue Autistic Teen

(AP) TUSTIN, Calif. Sheriff's officials defended their use of a Taser

stun gun to subdue an autistic teenager who left a social services

center where he was being treated.

" It was necessary, " sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said in defense

of the use of a Taser stun gun to subdue 15-year-old Karras.

He said the teen was running in and out of traffic and is lucky to be

alive.

" If that were your son, would you want him Tased or hit by a car? "

Amormino asked.

The teenager bolted from a social services center in Westminster on

Monday and had walked 15 miles when sheriff's deputies received a

call of someone running in and out of traffic on busy Newport Avenue.

Sheriff's Lt. Larry said a deputy fired the Taser after a

second car had to swerve.

The teen was home with his parents Tuesday, uninjured and no charges

were filed. But his parents said they believed deputies overreacted.

" They should have been on alert that there was a missing autistic

teenager in the area, " Karras said.

Taser use by police drew national attention this week after video

surfaced on the Internet of police shocking a university student in

Florida who persistently questioned Sen. Kerry during a forum

and refused to yield the microphone to others. The incident generated

a fierce debate about free speech, use of force and the motives of

the student, a known prankster.

University of Florida President Bernie Machen said the use of the

Taser, with the student yelling, " Don't Tase me, bro! "

was " regretful. " He requested a state probe of campus police actions

and placed two officers on leave.

In Ohio, another police officer was on administrative leave Thursday

after video taken from his cruiser showed him jolting a woman with a

Taser gun at least twice after she was handcuffed, police and city

administrators said.

Patrolman Kovach's report said the 38-year-old woman, who had

been ordered out of a bar, kicked at a rear window and tried to climb

into the front seat once she was inside the cruiser.

" I deployed a second Taser cartridge into her and the violent

turbulent action stopped immediately, " the report said. " I then

requested a car with a cage for transport. "

She was again Tasered during the transfer to the second car when she

fell and was knocked unconscious by the impact; an ambulance took her

to a hospital, the report on the Sept. 2 arrest said.

Simply because someone is hit with a Taser while handcuffed may not

be against policy, said Warren Law Director Greg Hicks, citing the

example of someone kicking out windows of a cruiser.

Taser stun guns fire electrically charged darts that carry 50,000

volts for several seconds, temporarily immobilizing their targets.

According to Taser International Inc., about 11,000 U.S. law

enforcement agencies use Taser technology.

[Guest guest]

nice, apparently our kids are cattle now.

NO, I wouldn't want them to taser in the situation. I would want

traffic to obey traffic rules so that they could slow down and stop

when they see a child in the streets and I would want a cop to be be

reasonable. If you are close enough to taser, you are close enough to

make a dash and tackle my kid if need be.

Tasers WERE SUPPOSED to be last resort, instead of a bullet, devices.

The thought process was supposed to be, " Ok, normally I would shoot you

right now and kill you, so instead lets try the taser " NOT " hmmmm my

fat nass had too many doughnuts for breakfast and taser would just be

easier than running " (said the daughter of the cop)

It's out of control.