CW: Police Brutality, Suicide, & Death
On March 1, a tragedy unfolded in Columbia, Maryland, highlighting a painful contradiction in our emergency-response system. Alex LaMorie, a 25-year-old man with autism, did what society says to do in a crisis: he asked for help. Minutes later, he was dead.
That day, LaMorie was struggling with suicidal thoughts. Following the safety plan he made with his family, he called 911 and requested a wellness check. Instead of getting support, the situation escalated quickly.
Police say he came out of his apartment with a knife and wouldn’t follow commands. Within seconds, three officers opened fire. He died instantly. For his family, the grief is made even worse by the cruel irony: the act meant to keep him safe—asking for help—turned into the cause of his death.
Those who knew LaMorie remember him as thoughtful, outspoken, and dedicated to supporting autistic people who often feel misunderstood. He had recently moved to Patuxent Commons, a housing community aimed at helping disabled people live independently. It was meant to be a place where he could thrive.
Instead, his death highlights a system that fails people in psychological distress, especially the disabled. The data is clear. Nearly half of the people killed by police have a disability, according to the Ruderman Family Foundation. A 2024 Journal of Urban Health analysis found that one in five people fatally shot by police were experiencing a mental-health crisis.
Autistic people are particularly at risk. Research cited by Psychology Today shows they are seven times more likely to encounter police than the general population, often because behaviors linked to autism—like delayed processing of commands, sensory overload, or unusual body language—are misinterpreted as defiance or aggression.
These encounters often start early. A 2016 study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders found that by age 21, nearly 20% of autistic young adults had already been stopped and questioned by police, and almost 5% had been arrested. These are not isolated cases; they show a pattern of misunderstanding and over-policing that follows autistic people throughout their lives.
This isn’t just about individual officers’ intentions. It’s a structural issue. Police are trained to ensure compliance and assess threats quickly. However, mental-health crises need patience, de-escalation, and clinical skills. Even departments with crisis-intervention training work within a law-enforcement framework that isn’t suited for these situations.
Some cities have started to recognize this. Programs like CAHOOTS in Eugene, Oregon, and STAR in Denver send unarmed crisis teams or clinicians instead of police for certain calls. Data shows fewer arrests, fewer hospitalizations, and much fewer violent encounters. A Stanford study found that pairing clinicians with officers significantly lowered the number of involuntary psychiatric admissions. These programs work, but they are still the exception.
Millions of 911 calls each year relate to behavioral-health crises, but most call centers aren’t trained to handle them. And despite the introduction of the 988 hotline, most mental-health emergencies still go through 911, where the typical response is armed officers.
The investigation into LaMorie’s death will show whether the protocols were followed. But even if the policies were perfectly followed, it doesn’t change the deeper truth: our emergency-response system was never set up for the realities of mental illness, neurodiversity, or disability. We are asking police to take on roles they are not trained—or often equipped—to handle.
LaMorie’s death should make us ask a simple but urgent question: When someone is in crisis, why is the first response a gun? If we keep telling people to seek help while giving them systems that might hurt them, we aren’t really offering help. We are leaving them to take a risk.
Alex LaMorie deserved better. So do the many others who reach out in vulnerable moments, hoping for safety, only to face a system that cannot meet their needs. Whether this tragedy brings about real change is still unclear. But the cost of doing nothing is already painfully evident.
Sources:
Brause, Debra. “How to Improve Autistic Encounters with Law Enforcement.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 20 May 2024, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-meets-neurodiversity/202405/how-to-improve-autistic-encounters-with-law-enforcement.
Elinson, Zusha. “When Mental-Health Experts, Not Police, Are the First Responders.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 24 Nov. 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mental-health-experts-not-police-are-the-first-responders-1543071600.
Golden, Jasmine. “An Autistic Man Called Police for a Wellness Check. He Was Fatally Shot.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Mar. 2026, http://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/03/07/maryland-fatal-police-shooting-autism/.
Hauck, Grace. “Denver Successfully Sent Mental Health Professionals, Not Police, to Hundreds of Calls.” USA Today, USA Today Company, 6 Feb. 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/02/06/denver-sent-mental-health-help-not-police-hundreds-calls/4421364001/.
Khan, Harun, et al. ‘Fatal Police Shootings of Victims with Mental Health Crises: A Descriptive Analysis of Data from the 2014–2015 National Violent Death Reporting System’. Journal of Urban Health, vol. 101, no. 2, Apr. 2024, pp. 262–271,. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-024-00833-3#citeas
Rava, Julianna, et al. ‘The Prevalence and Correlates of Involvement in the Criminal Justice System Among Youth on the Autism Spectrum’. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 47, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 340–346, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2958-3.
Walsh, John. “Mentally Ill Often a Target, but Chicago Police Might Have a Solution.” International Business Times, IBT Media, 18 Jan. 2017, https://www.ibtimes.com/police-killings-race-2016-mentally-ill-often-target-chicago-police-might-have-2476586.