Apparently…
“The officers had no way of knowing the suspect was deaf and mute and the suspect apparently was unable to communicate that to the officers,” one supervisor wrote in a review. “The suspect could have avoided this confrontation by remaining calm and still.”
So the police expect disabled people to start wearing shirts that say “don’t shoot – I’m deaf” or “…I’ve got a learning disability” or ….
Way to go Seattle PD, this was obviously the fault of the individual. Can you imagine being in a silent world, one you already have trouble coping with, waiting to go to work, and when you turn around there’s an angry woman pointing a gun at you? Yeah he shouldn’t have run – but I can understand why he did.
At least they had the decency not to press charges.
Source: Taser use on deaf man defended
