Shortly before midnight on February 28, Maryland man Alexander LaMorie called 911 for police assistance. Soon afterward, three officers arrived and shot him 12 times, leaving him dead at the scene. It has now been confirmed that the cops involved will not face any criminal charges.
LaMorie lived with severe autism that resulted in developmental disabilities and was a resident at Patuxent Commons, an apartment complex in Columbia that provides safe and affordable housing for adults with his condition.
On the night of his death, he was in crisis after reportedly becoming convinced he was being harassed online and blackmailed by a 13-year-old child who had demanded he purchase a $100 gift card.
PEOPLE reports that the officers spoke to him on the phone before arriving and believed he was suicidal, initiating an emergency petition for a psychiatric evaluation. At the building, they encountered LaMorie in emotional distress and clutching a knife.
The official report says the officers ordered LaMorie to drop the knife. Then he said he “didn’t want to live anymore” and “wanted to be free of his pain” before stretching out both arms, saying “go ahead” and walking towards the cops. All three officers attending then fired their service weapons at LaMorie from a distance of 12-14 feet.
“They came to the scene completely unprepared”
LaMorie’s mother, Dr. Jill Harrington, demanded criminal consequences, saying:
“The report confirms in new detail that the responding officers were well aware that Alex was experiencing a mental health crisis before they arrived on scene. Yet they came to the scene completely unprepared, without the proper equipment, the proper plan, and treating Alex’s life-threatening behavioral-medical crisis like a crime.”
She continued:
“Ultimately, their actions and inactions led to a preventable, fatal killing of a young adult, with a developmental disability – a good citizen and human being who was suffering with sudden profound hopelessness, despair, and shame brought about by his vulnerability to a cyberscam and the resulting call to 911.”
His mother also strongly criticized the lack of a non-lethal alternative, noting that bodycam footage showed the officers had wondered if they should use a taser, but another officer said “no”.
She says she’s “disappointed” that there are no criminal consequences, and that the official report does not “acknowledge that three police officers did anything wrong when they shot my son 12 times and unnecessarily, inhumanely killed him during a mental health crisis. I don’t imagine anyone had a small can of pepper spray on them?”
She concluded: “This is the definition of gross negligence and, in our opinion, warranted a charge of involuntary manslaughter. The officers’ comments to one another show their recognition of their tragic failure, only when it was too late.”
Former Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der said, “We have made specialized crisis intervention training a major priority in Howard County. Our officers receive training that goes far beyond state requirements.”
In other related news, an Ohio comedian helping someone in a parking lot was surprised to find the cops called on him, and in Texas, two sisters who allegedly stabbed a mom of five to death “couldn’t stop grinning” when the cops arrested them.
