The Maryland Attorney General’s Office on Monday released body-camera footage of the fatal police shooting earlier this month of an autistic man who had called police informing them he was in a suicidal crisis.
Videos recorded by Howard County police officers who officials said were responding to Alex LaMorie’s call early on the morning of March 1 about an alleged extortion scheme show them walking through the halls of Patuxent Commons, a housing community for Maryland residents with autism or other disabilities. LaMorie, 25, had recently moved into a new apartment there. When they reached his home, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, the officers located a phone, a wallet and a set of keys.
The four officers split up, calling out for “Alex” while searching the building’s stairwells, lounge and outside areas, while some stayed behind in case LaMorie returned.
Then a call came through the radio: “Hey, we got — this guy’s coming at us with a knife,” an officer said in one of the recordings.
Inside an elevator, one officer asked another if he was equipped with a Taser.
“No,” he responded, indicating that another officer had one.
Outside the apartment complex, one officer, identified in the footage as Joseph Riebau, talked to LaMorie from a distance.
Riebau told LaMorie that they did not want to hurt him and that things would get better. More officers joined the scene. That’s when LaMorie began walking toward them while holding the knife down by his side.
“Stop,” Riebau yelled. “Please don’t make me do this.”
The other officers drew their weapons, too, walking backward with their guns pointed at LaMorie as he continued walking toward them.
“We’re getting cornered,” one officer said. Others shouted, “Drop the knife!”
Barefoot and wearing a T-shirt and basketball shorts, LaMorie never lifted his arm to point the knife in their direction.
Then, three officers fired their guns. LaMorie fell to the ground, while the calls of “Drop the knife!” continued. The officers attempted medical aid until paramedics arrived, according to the attorney general’s office. LaMorie died at the scene.
Howard County police declined Monday to comment on the footage, referring questions to the office of Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, which said in a news release that an investigation is ongoing. The three officers who shot their weapons could not be reached for comment.
LaMorie’s mother, Jill Harrington, said in a statement that she chose “not to watch the police response to my son’s call for help as a victim of a cyber scam,” but that the footage was summarized to her. Knowing her son was “in stated pain and suicidal crisis” breaks her heart, she said, and that, faced with three officers with their weapons drawn, “the onus to save himself seems to have been placed on him when he was at his most wounded.”
Earlier this month, Howard County officials said the 911 call by LaMorie revolved around an alleged extortion scheme.
At a March 12 news conference, Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der said 911 dispatchers received a call from LaMorie before midnight on Feb. 28.
LaMorie said he believed that he was the victim of “an extortion scam,” after exchanging personal information and photos online with someone who claimed to be a young woman, Der said. He said he was then threatened by this person to pay money, or else the exchanges would be released.
Der said his department is familiar with extortion cases against people with disabilities.
“These situations can produce intense feeling of fear, embarrassment and shame,” Der said at the March 12 news conference. He added that police are investigating the alleged extortion and hope to identify those responsible “and hold them accountable through criminal charges.”
Harrington said in her statement that the attempts at extortion “triggered severe traumatic shame” in her son, leading him to dwell on negative thoughts.
At the complex, around 12:20 a.m. on March 1, LaMorie appeared distraught. A friend of the family said he had recurrent bronchitis, further darkening his mood.
“I wake up feeling like s— every day,” he told Riebau.
“It’s really not this bad,” the officer said, asking him to drop the knife. He declined.
“I don’t care. I don’t want to live anymore. I want to be free of my pain, man,” LaMorie said. “I want to be free of my pain.”
At one point, just before he began walking forward, LaMorie lifted his arms, telling the assembled officers to “go ahead.”
Howard County police have previously said two of the officers at the scene were trained to be members of the department’s crisis intervention team, while one was a specially trained negotiator. About 80 percent of the department’s officers have received the 40-hour training that teaches how to “more effectively and safely interact with people with mental health issues,” the department said.
Howard police also partner with the Grassroots Crisis Intervention center and Humanim to staff two mobile crisis teams, in which mental health professionals respond with officers to “incidents of longer duration.” They did not respond to the call at Patuxent Commons, police officials said.
“This is never the outcome we want to see,” said Der at the March 12 news conference, adding that the county’s officers are trained “far beyond state requirements.”
At the same news conference, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said the county is working to improve how it responds to incidents involving people experiencing mental duress. “Systems must continually evolve, and we must always be willing to ask, ‘How can we do better?’” he said.
Police are increasingly being asked to respond to behavioral health crises, Ball said. During the past five years, Howard County police have addressed more than 5,000 emergency petition calls involving people threatening to harm themselves or others. “In the vast majority of those cases, the outcome has been safe,” he said.
In the weeks since the shooting, the county has purchased 200 Tasers, improved the police department’s officer liaison program and started a review of its critical incident training, Ball said in a statement Monday. The county also has shared information about its 911 flagging initiative, which which allows families to voluntarily share information with law enforcement about residents who have special needs.
Ball also said the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development is working “to expand awareness of residential communities and facilities that serve adults with disabilities” with first responders.
“Our police officers are called upon every day to make difficult decisions in situations that can change in seconds,” Ball said. “Incidents like this remind us that we must continually strengthen our systems so that encounters involving people with disabilities are handled with the greatest possible level of understanding, patience and specialized response.”
LaMorie’s family and advocates for the disabled criticized the county’s handling of the shooting.
In her statement, Harrington said they were not notified about the March 12 conference until 15 minutes before it started.
“The engagement from Howard County Executive Calvin Ball and his team has been minimal and appears to be strategic, after the fact,” Harrington said in her statement. “It seems very disingenuous and not trauma-informed.”
Those who knew LaMorie say he regularly used his voice to advocate and offer support for other autistic people.
He spoke on podcasts and gave interviews and presentations as an advisory board member for the Autism & Grief Project, an effort from the Hospice Foundation of America for autistic adults who are dealing with loss, foundation President Amy Tucci said in a March 4 statement. LaMorie often teamed up with his mother, a licensed therapist who specializes in grief counseling.
In a written Q&A with Autism Speaks, a national advocacy organization, LaMorie said he liked to write action and horror stories, inspired by Iron Man and Captain America. He also detailed his struggles after being formally diagnosed with autism at 13, including times he was hospitalized after a severe mental health crisis.
Being autistic, LaMorie said, “I hear things, see things, feel things that other people don’t, both in a good way and a bad way.” Still, he said, “autism makes me unique, and it’s helped me meet a lot of the people I care about.”
LaMorie earned an associate’s degree from the University of Maryland Global Campus. He wanted to pursue either a bachelor’s degree or a certificate in IT, Neiberger, the close family friend, said.
Melissa Rosenberg, executive director of the Autism Society of Maryland, which developed Patuxent Commons alongside Mission First Housing Group, said counselors have been provided to help support residents. The residents have come together, mourning LaMorie, and have supported each other and attended social events, she said.
She said the body-worn camera footage shows that the officers weren’t equipped with training or access to non-lethal alternatives to respond appropriately.
Advocates are now calling on Howard County, and Maryland, to examine “where the system failed Alex,” Rosenberg said.
Howard County Councilmember Liz Walsh (District 1) said she cried when she saw the footage, suggesting that the incident should lead to leadership changes withing the police department.
“It’s almost impossible to watch,” Walsh said, questioning the officers’ training and the lack of non-lethal force.
“It just looked like they opened fire on him,” Walsh said.
“I think its time to revisit leadership from the top and what kind of training and accountability there is,” she said
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