17-year-old Foster Boy Dies

From Victorville, California, a 17-year-old foster teen was “experiencing a mental health issue, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus announced in a Wednesday morning press conference.

The 17-year-old boy, whose identity has not been released, was a resident of Hesperia, though he had been involuntarily committed using a 5150 hold three days before the deadly encounter after he cut his wrists.

While being transported from a local hospital to a mental care facility, the teen “absconded” from medical care and showed up at the home of his two sisters, who are also in the foster care system but who live in a separate home in Victorville, Dicus said.

The sisters’ parents reported the teen as a trespasser, but he locked himself in a bathroom inside the home.

Armed with a knife, the boy threatened to harm himself, and given the small space, deputies were unable to use stun guns.

Instead, after half an hour of trying to deescalate the situation, they used pepper spray and attempted to physically take the boy into custody, with deputies yelling at the boy to “let go of the knife.” One deputy was sliced on the hand in the process.

During the fracas, one deputy opened fire, according to Dicas and confirmed by body camera video. The teen was struck and pronounced dead at a local hospital, the SBSD said in a press release.

Dicas mourned the “significant tragedy” that occurred while encouraging the public to “realize we can do better with” mental health crises.

The sheriff said not only is his department working to improve their responses to these issues, but he thinks Gov. Gavin Newsom and the recently passed Proposition 1, which allows the state to borrow up to $6.4 billion to build mental care facilities, are steps in the right direction.

“The overriding issue here that we need to be paying attention to as a society, and this is in lockstep with Proposition 1 and what the governor has stated, we have a mental health crisis on our hands, not just in this county, but in the entire state,” he said.”

Inland Empire teen fatally shot by deputies during mental health crisis

[KTLA 4/3/24 by Cameron Kiszla]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:The identity of the teen has been released-Aaron Jones.
Identity of the Teen Shot to Death in Victorville is Announced
[The Sun 4/5/24 by Brian Rokos]