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By Samia Gazi and Helen Shamamyan
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – DeWitt Lacy, a partner at Law Offices of Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy, said last week at a news conference his firm has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the family members of Ryan Gainer under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Civil Rights Acts.
Gainer, said attorney Lacy, was an autistic, African-American 15-year-old who suffered from a mental health crisis before his fatal encounter with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy
Lacy charged, “Our vulnerable populations need law enforcement to act as trained professionals, not laypersons. Ryan needed understanding and patience, not the hasty actions that cost him his life.”
The press confab also featured civil rights attorney, John Burris, who noted, “The tragedy of Ryan Gainer is that he should be alive today if the sheriff dispatcher had communicated to the deputies that the family had called and said the matter was under control, and that their services were no longer needed…we suspect the Deputy Sheriffs never got the dispatch. The department’s conduct is reprehensible.”
According to the lawyers, a series of events on March 9 in Apple Valley, California, led to the shooting after a family altercation over chores resulted in a phone call to the police, leading to a mental health crisis for Ryan, who suffers from autism.
After the initial phone call, the family followed up with authorities, according to the lawsuit, and informed them Ryan had calmed down since the first call. When deputies arrived, however, Ryan was fatally shot while leaving his house with a garden tool in hand, the statement notes.
Family members present at the scene accused the authorities of maltreatment, detailing how they were “restrained, threatened, and denied the ability to provide aid to Ryan as he lay dying.”
The recent federal complaint, which followed the state-level claim against the county, pointed to the deputies’ handling of the circumstances as “excessive and unjustified, demonstrating a blatant disregard for Ryan’s disability and the family’s pleas for help.”
The press conference noted the complaint alleges the deputies violated the family’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment constitutional rights, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act and additional state laws.
The pleadings claim the family suffered a traumatic aftermath of the experience with law enforcement, who were unsuitable and ill-equipped to properly execute a situation of mental health crisis.
Samia Gazi is a rising sophomore at UCLA studying political science. Through the Vanguard Court Watch Program and in the future, she will fulfill her passions in the fields of law and journalism.
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