It is this broader goal of law enforcement policies going forward that is a priority of advocates. Burt, and several other disability community members have launched a statewide campaign to let the French family know that they are not alone, to continue calls for accountability, and most broadly to try changing the ways that law enforcement interacts with adults with disabilities in California. Teresa Anderson, public policy director of The Arc of California, posted a call for action on the shooting. The failure to bring charges stunned a lot of our families.”Īnd beyond the Inland Empire, other autism and disability groups in California have weighed in. In all, safety is the top priority: safety in interactions outside the home and safety in police relations. Beth Burt, Executive Director of the Inland Empire Society and President of the Autism Society statewide, explained “We conduct regular surveys of our families on how we can best serve them. The Facebook page of the Autism Society-Inland Empire, an area that includes San Bernardino and Riverside counties, filled with posts on the shooting: anger and incredulity at the failure to bring charges, and determination that Officer Sanchez be held accountable. This time will be different, California’s disability activists have promised over the month since Estrin’s decision. The police officer in Miami was convicted of negligence, a misdemeanor, while the police officer in Chicago was given a six-month suspension. These shootings also received initial media attention, but then quickly faded from view. The Costco shooting is latest of a number of police shootings of men with developmental disabilities, in recent years, including in Chicago, and in North Miami. Will this shooting follow the trajectory of other police shootings of adults with developmental differences? What to make of the shooting? The media have moved on, as has the District Attorney and local elected officials. “If it was anyone other than a police officer, it would have been prosecuted.” “If anyone else shot three people in the back from a distance, they would have been arrested,” Dale Galipo, attorney for the French family told the Los Angeles Times. The Frenches had their backs to Officer Sanchez when he shot. Less than 5 seconds elapsed between the initial push and Sanchez opening fire. Sanchez fired not once, but 10 shots that only killed Kenneth, but also severely wounded both parents. After French had pushed Sanchez to the ground, French’s parents immediately tried to intervene and explain their son’s disability. However, as more facts came out, the shooting became less defensible, not more. Additional information might cast the shooting in a far different light. In other high profile police shooting cases, the initial reports have turned out to be inaccurate. I worry all the time that these interactions could turn violent.” And a third added, “Shoving someone should not be met with immediate shooting, especially by a trained police officer.”ĭespite the alarm, there was agreement there should be no rush to judgement. Another volunteered, “My son engages in unusual behaviors, sometimes touching or bumping into others. “Kenneth French could have been my son”, wrote one parent. The first media notice in June moved rapidly around the autism and mental health blogosphere in California. Then again it disappeared from public view.īut it did not disappear entirely. The case reappeared on September 25, when Hestrin announced that he would not bring any criminal charges against Sanchez. The Riverside County District Attorney, Mike Hestrin, was said to be investigating, as was the Los Angeles City Police Department, Sanchez’s employer. However, media interest was short-lived and within a short time the story went dark. Until the shooting, French and Sanchez had never met.Īn account of the shooting appeared in the Los Angeles Times the next day and in several other local newspapers. According to witnesses, French had become agitated and pushed Sanchez to the ground, while they both were in line for food samples. On Sunday afternoon, June 14, 2019, at a crowded Costco store in Corona, California, an off-duty policy officer, Salvador Sanchez, shot and killed Kenneth French, a 32 year old man who was non-verbal and described by family as severely developmentally disabled.
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