The Center for Public Representation is saddened and angered by the killing of Ryan Gainer, a 15-year-old Black youth with autism, by police officers in Southern California on March 9, 2024. We grieve his loss and extend our deepest condolences to Ryan’s family.
The fatal shooting of Ryan Gainer by San Bernadino police officers just outside his home once again shines a spotlight on police use of force against people with autism and people with disabilities and underscores the urgent need to reform the emergency response system for people experiencing mental health crises.
Ryan, a cross country runner who dreamed of becoming a civil engineer, was in crisis March 9th following an argument with his parents about chores. His family called 911 seeking help. Ryan was shot and killed by police seconds after they arrived at his home.
People who call 911 for help during a mental health crisis are more likely to encounter a police officer than to receive medical or mental health assistance. The Urban Institute reports that up to 50 percent of police-use-force incidents involve a person with a disability, and half of all people killed by police have a disability. People with behavioral health issues are 16 times more likely to be shot by the police than persons without disabilities. And a Black person with mental illness is more than twice as likely to be killed in a police encounter than a white person.
It is time to re-imagine the default 911 emergency response system so that mental health clinicians and trained peers – not armed police officers – are the primary and preferred responders to emergency calls from people experiencing psychiatric crises. A new emergency system is long overdue. As the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network tweeted last week, “Ryan Gainer’s tragic death is part of a pattern of police violence against Black autistic children and adults.”
Last month the US Department of Justice issued a statement endorsing alternatives, such as mobile crisis response teams, to the traditional “less effective, potentially harmful” police response to individuals in crisis. CPR supports this statement and is committed to working diligently to ensure its implementation. For children like Ryan, the system must change. We must deliver emergency response services to people with disabilities who call 911 during a mental health crisis with compassion and care, and without force and harm.