TW: heartbreaking. Very upsetting. ACAB.
On 12 January 2013, Robert Ethan Saylor, a 26-year-old man with Down syndrome from Frederick County, Maryland, watched the film Zero Dark Thirty at a local movie theater with his caregiver. When the film ended, his caregiver left him briefly in the lobby while she went to get the car. Ethan returned to the theater to watch the film again. His aide later told investigators that Ethan had loved the film. He had even clapped at the end.
Ethan was fascinated with law enforcement. He sometimes called 911 just to ask dispatchers questions. He was a devoted follower of the television programme NCIS and loved talking to police officers.
A theater employee noticed he had re-entered without a ticket and called mall security. Three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, Lieutenant Scott Jewell, Sergeant Rich Rochford and Deputy First Class James Harris, responded. Ethan's caregiver returned and spoke to management and one of the officers, alerting them that he had Down syndrome and asking to be allowed in to help. Her request was refused.
The aide warned the deputies that Ethan would freak out if they touched him. Moments later, she described seeing three or four officers holding him and trying to put him in handcuffs. She heard him screaming "ouch," "don't touch me" and "get off." Witnesses said he was screaming "Mommy! Mommy! It hurts!" as he was forcibly removed from his seat.
Ethan ended up on the floor beneath the three deputies. As the deputies tried to restrain him along a slightly inclined ramp at the rear of the theater, three sets of handcuffs were placed on him during the struggle. As the deputies manhandled him, they fractured his larynx, making it difficult for him to breathe. When this became apparent, they rolled him onto his side, removed his handcuffs and called emergency medical technicians. It was too late. Ethan suffocated.
He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The state medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by asphyxia.
The presiding federal judge later wrote that Ethan had been sitting quietly in his seat and that there was nothing in the record to suggest that, if left alone, he would not have remained there until his mother arrived. He described the escalation in the deputies' use of force as dramatic and noted that a man had died over the cost of a movie ticket. A county grand jury determined criminal charges were not warranted. The three deputies were cleared in an internal affairs investigation and faced no criminal consequences.
Ethan's mother, Patti Saylor, said: "Ethan's life matters. He didn't deserve to die the way he did. People with disabilities are part of our community, and first responders and law enforcement need to know and respect their needs." In 2018, the family settled a civil lawsuit for $1.9 million against the state of Maryland, the three deputies and the mall management company.
No one was ever charged with a crime in connection with Ethan Saylor's death.
My youngest child is a young man with autism. I think about this every single day. I think about Ethan. And I think there but for the grace of God.
I'm scared everyday because the police in America are f****** crazy and I worry everyday that they're going to kill my son.
