A Salt Lake City Police Officer shot and nearly killed a 13 year old autistic boy Friday night. The victim's name is Linden Cameron and he is currently in a hospital recovering from an unknown number of gunshot wounds. According to media reports his recovery is expected to be a long one. As you can see by the above picture he is a little guy that looks younger than he really is. Golda Barton called the police asking for a crisis intervention team because her son was having a mental heath episode. She thought he might need to go to the hospital and the police made sure that he went.
After what Sgt. Keith Horrocks called a "short foot pursuit" several shots were fired and at least one of them hit Cameron. Horrocks did not report finding a weapon on Cameron. Barton says that she told officers her son was unarmed, that he just throws fits sometimes, and does not know how to regulate his emotions. The officers obviously did not care what she had to say, did nothing to de-escalate the situation, and treated her developmentally disabled child like a criminal.
The media has not reported on the status of the officer that shot Cameron. They have not reported if he is on paid leave or suspended let alone fired and arrested like he should be. SLCPD Spokesman Detective Greg Wilking gave a boiler plate statement saying that body cam footage will be reviewed and people will be held accountable, but he declined to name the officer.
What kind of police department lets their officers shoot developmentally disabled kids without firing them immediately afterwards? What kind of officer declines to name the person responsible for nearly killing an unarmed child? We will be following this case very closely, we will find out who this officer is, and we will give the full Cop Blaster treatment.