15-year old autistic boy shot to death by police in Illinois

Stephon Watts, age 15

15-year old Stephon Watts, of Calumet City, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) was asked by his father to get off a computer. The boy resisted, and having had numerous problems with the boy that required police intervention, the father called the police again. This time, though, the boy attacked the police with a knife and was shot to death.

From the article:

Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore said officers had been to the home 12 times since June 2010. Ten of those times, he said, were in regards to the boy.

Family members said the teen charged at one of the officers with a butter knife and was shot twice in the head by police.

Gilmore disputed the family's account, saying he believed the teen was shot in the torso after he lashed out at one of the officers with a kitchen knife, not a butter knife. The offer was cut in the left forearm, he said.

The chief said his officers acted in self defense. But Watts' family said shooting the boy was too severe.

"They knew how he was," said the teen's uncle, Wayne Watts, referring to the boy's autism. "They could have [used their Taser] on him."

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