The family of an autistic man who was fatally shot by police in Maryland after he called 911 during a mental health crisis allege in a lawsuit that Howard County violated federal law by dispatching its officers to the scene without a plan, specialized mental health resources, nor nonlethal alternatives.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday, eight months after Alex LaMorie, 25, called 911 on Feb. 28 to report he was the victim of an online extortion scam. LaMorie had also expressed suicidal thoughts to police, his family said.
Officers who arrived at his apartment building, an inclusive housing community for people with and without disabilities, found LaMorie in the parking lot. An officer waved him forward, according to the lawsuit.
Authorities have said LaMorie walked toward police and refused commands to drop a knife he was holding before officers fired their weapons.
LaMorie was shot 11 times, according to an autopsy report.
Jamie Strawbridge, an attorney for LaMorie’s family, said the circumstances should have prompted police to modify the department’s “force-first” approach. The failure to do so violated federal laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities, Strawbridge said.
Officers had spoken to LaMorie on the phone earlier and he had “referred to thoughts of harming himself,” according to the lawsuit. Police responded to his apartment to conduct an emergency evaluation petition, a response intended to assess a person for mental health hospitalization.
“They already knew, or should have known, that this was a situation that demanded, and under federal law required, an alternative response,” Strawbridge, a partner with law firm Brown, Goldstein & Levy, said at a news conference. “And yet, they did not come with a plan. They did not summon specialized resources.”
Strawbridge said the county was also “well aware” of Patuxent Commons, the housing development where LaMorie was living, and had invested more than $6 million into the project. Howard County police officers had also previously responded to the building for a separate incident, he said.
Jill Harrington, LaMorie’s mother and a licensed grief counselor, spoke at Thursday’s news conference alongside her husband and LaMorie’s stepfather, David Carey, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.
They described the families’ extensive line of military members and first responders, which they said has made their son’s death all the more troubling.
“This is a family that understands that although the use of force is sometimes appropriate, it is not always appropriate,” Carey said. “I hope this lawsuit will help ensure the next person in Howard County with autism who asks for help does not suffer the same tragic fate.”
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland names Howard County and three officers involved in the shooting as defendants.
A Howard County police spokesperson said the department is unable to comment on pending litigation, and an internal investigation remains open. A spokesperson for the county government said earlier Thursday afternoon that the county had not been served with a court complaint, but also typically does not comment on pending or impending litigation.
Efforts to reach police officers Cody Bostic, Joseph Riebau and Joel Rodriguez, who are named in the lawsuit, were unsuccessful Thursday. The Howard County Police Officers’ Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, the Maryland attorney general’s office declined to criminally charge the officers involved in the shooting after finding there was insufficient evidence that they committed a crime.
The lawsuit alleges that LaMorie was initially more than 100 feet away from officers, when surveillance footage from the apartment building shows an officer waved him forward. That officer then radioed in that LaMorie had a knife, which attorneys described in the lawsuit as a “small bread knife.”
One of the officers had earlier asked another if he had a Taser, which the other responded, “No,” according to the lawsuit. Another officer, moments before the shooting, asked: “Do we have less lethal?”
Howard County police policy requires officers to make attempts to de-escalate an incident, such as using verbal persuasion and warnings or requesting mental health providers to help with the response. County police have said two of the responding officers were trained in crisis intervention.
Delancy Allred, public policy director at the Autism Society of America, said training is not enough on its own. How the techniques are applied during an actual crisis matters, Allred said, especially because autistic individuals may communicate differently or “experience overwhelming distress in unfamiliar situations.”
Rae Haight, a Howard County resident with autism, said he felt “deeply connected” to LaMorie after hearing of his death and that it reinforced his own fear of calling 911 for help and being harmed. He attended the news conference to support LaMorie’s family.
LaMorie’s mom said her son regularly offered support for others as a disability and grief advocate and “believed in people uniquely being themselves.”
He had moved into Patuxent Commons just three days before the fatal shooting after winning a lottery out of more than 2,300 applicants to move into the building.
The last interaction Harrington had with her son was giving him a hug goodbye after they celebrated her birthday together at a bowling alley that final evening, she said.
He boarded his Uber on his way to his new home, the place they called “the dream.”
Harrington recalled saying, “We love you, Al.”
“I will never forget that hug and those final words,” she said.
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