He just needed to breathe. He just needed to breathe. They always had him locked up. He just needed to breathe.
You may or may not hear about this boy in the regional or national news. He was sixteen. The facts (no solace) are as follows:
He was ten years old when he went on probation for the first time for bringing a knife to school. Six years ago the zero tolerance policy was already in place in schools here. Maybe this had something to do with what was to follow.
He was in and out of foster homes and group homes and probably juvenile hall, too. This is a small town, so I was speaking to someone who had personal knowledge of this boy. Due to the way his life worked out, he never was given the chance to learn how to deal with his own anger. That's how it was put to me.
He was still on probation for something or other up until yesterday. He had been getting his act together recently with a job at Burger King and joining a church and keeping his nose clean. I get the sense his girlfriend had something to do with that change for the better.
This doesn't end well.
Yesterday he was with his girlfriend at the house of an adult who was a sort of extra mom for kids in his situation. Many communities have people like this who don't judge kids, just let them be themselves. Anyway, they were watching a movie with the front door wide open to let in a breeze. It was one of those beautiful fall afternoons yesterday and it got too warm inside.
Two parole officers walked in. They had been looking for the boy. At this point, the details become sketchy and contradictory depending on who is telling the story. For whatever reason, pepper spray was used and for whatever reason the boy bolted and the parole officers contacted the police department for help with a foot pursuit.
This is how this boy's life ended: he was shot three times in the chest by a policeman.
At the police press conference it was stated that the police were chasing the boy (who had a large knife, they said) down in a wooded ravine and that he turned and the officer felt threatened (being only 5 feet away) and he fired three times. The police were asked why tasers hadn't been tried and the response was that their tasers were mostly old and some officers didn't have them.
Apparently, the only witnesses to the shooting (who are still alive) are police and an off duty sheriff who joined in the pursuit.
There will be a community meeting on Thursday.
There was a candlelight vigil tonight at the spot where the boy was brought up on a stretcher and life-saving was attempted. There were about 30 people there, mostly friends and family. They waited until the camera crews were gone. After a short, wordless ceremony with burning sage -- followed by the Lord's Prayer -- the boy's mother said the words I quoted above about her son just needing to breathe.
This may not seem that big of a story in the larger world but it is very big to our small community because this is the second time that police have shot someone to death in the last six months. The first time was a woman who was having a psychotic episode, yelling out her window and brandishing a flare gun. The police broke down her door and when they saw the flare gun pointed at them, opened fire. There was a negotiation going on with a person trained in these sort of conflicts but the police moved in between contacts.
I had come around to the idea that it was just a series of bad twists of fate that led to this woman's death. Things could have turned out differently if any one of a number of relatively trivial occurences had played out differently. But they didn't. It seemed like fate.
But then, recently, somebody diaried about SWAT/paramilitary training and how it goes too far. They were right. I wrote this diary to tell you that. I think police are being mis-trained to handle emergencies of this type.
I have no call to action for you. My action will be to attend the meeting and see what comes from that. I'm hoping for a civilian review board which I would willingly volunteer for. I guess your action could be to reach out. Hug your kid or make that call to the foster agency or to Big Brothers/Big Sisters that you've been considering.
With the election so close, pardon my off topic diary. I just felt the need to tell somebody.