Man With Autism Tasered by Police

Before midnight on Christmas eve, Greenville police responded to a call about gunshots in the neighborhood. They spotted and attempted to detain Tario as he walked on the street near his home. Police say when they spotted him on the street he attempted to walk away from them.

“When they put their spotlight on him, he immediately put his head down, put his hands in his pockets and began to walk away from him,” Officer Johnathan Bragg with Greenville Police said. “They then got out of the vehicle and approached him and ordered him to stop at which point he did flee from the officers and they pursued him.”

After police caught up with Anderson they used Tasers on him in order to take him into custody. “From what he did, he did break the law so in any case like that, we do go ahead and arrest them and make the charges and we’re not deemed certified to declare anyone as mentally ill or with a disease or anything like that so we don’t technically know if he is,” Bragg said.

Tario, has a severe form of autism rendering him almost incapable of speaking, his mother Carolyn Anderson said.

“Tario can say yes or no, he might ask for a thing or two, but just verbal, no,” Carolyn Anderson explained.

Officers were not aware of Anderson’s disability, but that he still broke the law when he attempted to flee.

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Neighbors familiar with Tario — who has lived his entire life in the same neighborhood– heard him yelling as the police attempted to subdue him and they immediately called his mother.

Autism is a developmental disorder that typically appears during the first three years of life. It affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills. Autism results due to a neurological disorder that affects the normal brain function. There is no known cause for autism.

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Source-Medindia