A Salt Lake City police officer shot a 13-year-old boy suffering with autism 11 times after the boy's mother asked police to help her son to a hospital, according to a video released by police almost two weeks after the incident.
Police haven't given a reason why the officer shot and wounded Linden Cameron late Sept. 4. Information and body-camera video of the incident were first released earlier this week only. An independent police investigation is being conducted, and Salt Lake City Police said they expect additional investigations from the district attorney's office and a civilian review board, according to CNN.
The video shows officers approaching Cameron on a street near his home and shouting at him. He was unarmed, according to a police report of the shooting.
Cameron suffers with Asperger's.
"Get on the ground now," yells one officer. Another shouts "Pull your hands out." The first officer fires his weapon at Cameron 11 times, the video shows. As the teen lay wounded this first officer demanded the youth "show me your hands."
"I don't feel good," the youth is recorded saying. "Tell my mom I love her."
Cameron survived the shooting but remains in a critical condition at a hospital. His injuries include gun-shot wounds to his shoulder, ankles, intestines, bladder and colon.
"I am very saddened by this tragic situation," police chief Mike Brown said earlier this week. "As a father of three young sons this has had a big impact on me personally." Brown didn't elaborate.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall said: "As a member of this community, and as the mother of a 14-year-old boy, I am profoundly heartbroken - and I am frustrated."
The officers that shot Cameron were told about the boy's health problems by his mother Golda Barton. She called the police earlier to seek their assistance in getting her son to a hospital for treatment.
Barton told police her son had threatened to shoot her male colleague and break windows at the house. She said her son owns a pellet gun. Barton said her son was "triggered" by seeing police. "He sees the badge and he automatically thinks you are going to kill him or he has to defend himself in some way," she said. "He freaks out."
