A 16-year-old disabled boy was taken into custody and escorted to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. Initially, he was taken into custody for attacking his father on January 19th. The name of the victim has not been identified, and it has also not been clarified if the call was made by the father or by a witness. The boy experienced what police Jefferson Parish Police are calling an “apparent medical emergency.”
The first reports where that the boy was hitting and biting his father while playing at Laser Tag of Metairie on Veteran’s Memorial Boulevard. During the arrest is when the boy was being arrested. Police were not immediately aware of the special needs, and close family members described the boy as on the severe end of the autism spectrum.
At about 1:30 in the afternoon on January 19th, police responded to the fight, not knowing it was a disabled person, and not knowing it was two family members. The victim’s 53-year-old father and subject of the attack sustained multiple bite wounds from the attack. Deputies detained the teen, but the teen resisted by biting the deputy.
When the boy became unresponsive, he was taken to a local hospital but was later pronounced dead. The autopsy was scheduled for that following Tuesday, but reports following that announcement explained that the results of a full autopsy could take weeks. There is currently no suspected cause of death.
People within the community came together to acknowledge that children with autism can often have aggressive outbursts. They may become a danger to themselves or others, and on rare occasions, people can describe these outbursts or meltdowns as “nuclear.” In those cases, there’s nothing that can be done to control or contain the situation, and not everyone has training on how to handle these meltdowns.
If you need help with your disability benefits, contact our SSDI lawyers for help.
Source: https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_d0f3e714-3bd6-11ea-9f55-f34afdaa89be.html
