Teen with mental health issues shot to death in California with knife

A Southern California police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy with mental health issues after he armed himself with a knife and locked himself in the bathroom of his home, authorities said on Wednesday (local time).

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dickus said the teen escaped Tuesday and was transferred from a hospital to a mental health facility, where he was treated after cutting himself.

The boy was a foster youth living in Hesperia and later showed up at a home in Victorville where his sisters were living in a foster home, Dicus said. Dix said someone at the home called deputies to arrest him because he had been in trouble there before.

The teen locked himself in the bathroom with a knife, and it took deputies about half an hour to get him out, according to the sheriff. But when the boy threatened to harm himself, the officers kicked in the door and tried to arrest him, Dickus said.

Video and images of the encounter show the teen holding a knife, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported. Deputies pepper-sprayed him and one suffered a knife cut on his hand, the newspaper said.

Dix said the teen was pushed into the bathtub and shot. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The death occurred less than a month after a San Bernardino police officer shot and killed 15-year-old Ryan Gainer. The autistic boy threatened his family at a Victorville home and then chased a responding police officer with a garden hoe, the Sheriff’s Department said.

In both cases, deputies encountered violence, Dicus said Wednesday. He said parents need more mental health services for troubled children, so law enforcement isn’t the only option in times of crisis.

“My record over the past few years as sheriff is that I have been an advocate for a better mental health system,” Dicus said.

“The correctional environment and our public environment are challenged many times by the fact that the only mental health resource in our community is law enforcement, and that’s the only 24/7 resource we have,” Dix added.