The following story includes content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
New details are emerging about a fatal police shooting in San Bernardino County.
On March 9 around 4:00 pm, Ryan Gainer’s family called for help for their 15-year-old autistic son.
On the dispatch call, a distressed woman is heard asking for deputies to come to their house in Apple Valley.
Woman: He broke the house. He broke the door. He’s breaking the window.
Dispatcher: Has he broke the window?
Woman: Yes he broke it. Inaudible
The Sheriff’s department said through a statement that when deputies arrived on scene, Gainer charged a deputy with a garden tool before they shot him.
Sheriff Shannon Dicus called the shooting lawful, but also a tragedy for the family and deputies involved. He says Gainer may have been shot three times.
During a press conference Wednesday, the department released more video of the incident. The new footage shows when the deputy shot Gainer and the frantic moments that followed.
Dicus says there was no other option but to shoot.
"The use of a Taser in this situation with the amount of time or the use of pepper-spray would not have been something we would have been able to react to quick enough," Dicus said. "Ultimately we have to stop this problem…law enforcement officers are not required to be hit over the head with something. What happens when they get incapacitated?"
DeWitt Lacy — an attorney representing Gainer’s family — says deputies failed to follow their training.
"Law enforcement officers are trained to de-escalate situations where they meet persons with mental imparities in the field," he said in a phone interview. "But they did not do that here."
Lacy says after the shooting, there was a gap before Gainer was given any help.
"Law enforcement officers were pointing their weapons at the family who were trying to render aid to their loved one…their brother, their son, their neighbor, who they saw suffering and gasping for air," he said. "But the officers refused to allow anybody to render aid."
(Clarification, 3/27/24: According to a review by KVCR of body-worn camera footage provided by the sheriff's department, deputies are holding their weapons, but do not appear to be aiming them at the family. Deputies instruct the family to stay away from Gainer; it is unclear if they are attempting to render aid. Deputies began rendering aid approximately one minute after Gainer was shot.)"
Gainer was pronounced dead at St. Mary’s Hospital shortly after.
Lacy says Gainer was an avid runner and says members of the sheriff’s department knew he had autism from their previous interactions with him.
"As is by most folks with autism, there's some coping mechanism his is running. And the deputies had on many times… brought him back home or helped to search for him after one of his runs, even called to the house to help with disagreements and arguments which had arisen in the past. On this occasion, however, the deputies came to the front door without a plan of action of how they were going to encounter Ryan."
Lacy says now Gainer’s family waits for more answers.
