Bodycam footage shows cops tasing severely autistic man who can't speak
October 20, 2021
Body camera footage was released showing Florida police tasing a Black autistic man with the mental abilities of a 4 year old, reported the Daily Beast, citing the Orlando news station WESH-2.
The Eustis Police were called about a possible burglary and when they arrived they found the man with severe autism, Louis Grahai, walking around the neighborhood without his shoes. Grahai is unable to speak and can't control his bowels.
The incident report said that the police gave him multiple commands before tasing him until he falls to the ground.
"Get on your stomach!" an officer screams at him. "I don't want to do it again!"
"Hands behind your back. Put your hands behind your back!" the other shouts.
Grahai doesn't seem to understand what they're saying so they tased him again.
His family rushed to him, finding him pinned to the ground, bleeding from his ear.
"Everybody loves Lou. He's lovable, everybody knows he ain't going to hurt nobody," said mother Roberta Crew. Typically he doesn't wander out of the house, she noted. She also revealed that he upon being released from the hospital on Tuesday he continues to have neck and ear damage and must wear a neck brace.
"If he didn't [go] down when you tell him to, what is the next thing you're going to do? Shoot him. That's my worst nightmare," she said.
The Eustis Police swear they did the "best they could" and swear that they used "de-escalation based on the knowledge [officers] had at the time. Had [they] known this was a severely autistic person, I doubt any force would have been used. I think they did everything right. It could have been a lot worse—thank God it wasn't."
The entire video wasn't released, so it's unclear how the incident began or if police tried to talk to Grahai when they first found him.
The network began the report with a warning, "The details of this next report are tough to hear."
See the video below:
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