Federal civil rights lawsuit filed in killing of autistic teen by deputies in Apple Valley

Lawyers representing the family of a 15-year-old autistic boy who was shot and killed by San Bernardino County deputies during an encounter at his Apple Valley home announced a federal lawsuit over the teen's death, as well as the treatment of his family in the aftermath.

Ryan Gainer died after being shot by two deputies as he charged toward one of them with a garden hoe in front of the family's home on March 9. The deputies had responded to a report of a family disturbance in which family reported that Gainer had struck his sister and broken a window.

Family members said the boy was having a mental health crisis.

On Thursday, Attorney DeWitt Lacy of law firm Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy announced that he and his colleagues have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against San Bernardino County and its sheriff's department on behalf of Gainer's family.

"The motto of modern law enforcement has never been 'to comply or die,'" he said. "That's not the rule. That's the way the law looks at these things. That's not the way any officers in California are trained to deal with calls that deal with mental help impairments. They're supposed to protect and serve and give help."

"Instead, the Gainer family was met with unprofessionalism, brute and deadly force, shameful treatment of the family afterward, who had just experienced one of the worst tragedies a family can experience," Lacy said.

On the day of the shooting, two family members had called back the sheriff's department and told dispatchers that the situation had calmed down and was under control, and that deputies were no longer needed, the lawyer said.

"Nonetheless, law enforcement still responded, disregarding a lot of their training, and barged in, and then proceeded to use deadly force against Ryan in a circumstance that we don't believe justified," according to Lacy.

Attorney John Burris said if the deputies were never told the situation was resolved, "the department's conduct is reprehensible."

"Alternatively, if the deputy sheriffs did received the dispatch received the dispatch and continued to the house anyway, killing Ryan, their conduct was criminal, and they should be prosecuted," Burris said. "Either way, Ryan shouldn't be dead."

Deputies had responded to the Gainer home on five previous occasions due to Ryan having mental health crises, according to sheriff's officials and family members. None of the previous encounters involved violence.

Gainer's mother and one of his sisters, who were present at the time of the shooting, said they were treated like criminals by deputies.

They were held at a police station and questioned, against their will, for more than three hours while deputies refused to tell them that Ryan had died, the attorneys said.

Video obtained by the law office showed deputies carrying Ryan's mother, Sharon Haywood, who was in a wheelchair and recovering from a stroke, to a police vehicle.

"I didn't have medicine. They told us we could not go back into the house to get my seizure medicine," she said through tears. "I ended up having so many seizures that they called the paramedics. But they would not take me to the hospital where my son was."

Deputies failed to provide Haywood with adult diapers despite requesting them, she said. "I ended up urinating in a trash can because I did not have any Depends."

"That day I will never forget. I saw my baby's limp body, and they kept told me that they were trying to stabilized him," the mother said. "They lied to me and said that they were stabilizing him to send him to Arrowhead or to Loma Linda because they have a trauma 1 center. There were so many lies that day."

Ryan's sister Rebecca Gainer said she is still unable to sleep after witnessing her brother's shooting.

"For them to stop me from helping him and put the gun to my face when I'm trying to help my brother, and everything that happened afterward, like what they did to my mom," she said.

In addition to civil rights violations, the federal lawsuit also alleged violations of the family's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Multiple requests for information including the names of deputies who responded to the scene, other than the two who fired their weapons, as well as body camera footage, dispatch recording and logs, have not been fulfilled by sheriff's officials, attorney Julie Quesada said.

The unnamed deputies who responded to the scene and dealt with Ryan's family, along with Sheriff Shannon Dicus, will soon be added to the lawsuit, Lacy said.

Dicus has described the shooting as tragic, but defended the actions of the deputies and said they acted according to their training. He pointed out how quickly the situation escalated, with just seven seconds between the time Ryan first appeared in a hallway in front of the deputy and the moment at which the first deputy made the decision to open fire.

Ryan's father, Norman Gainer, urged the sheriff's department to provide the information the family has asked for.

"That's how you build support with the community, by allowing openness and transparency. That's the only way we're going to move forward," he said.

The lawyers previously filed a state-level wrongful death claim against San Bernardino County and its sheriff's department in the weeks after the shooting.

Lacy said the claim has been denied by county officials, escalating the matter to a lawsuit in state court.

"The county has decided that want to go forward with litigation, arguing that these officers were justified in the killing of Ryan Gainer. We, of course, disagree," he said.

Norman said he will not stop fighting on behalf of his son.

"We've always been Ryan's biggest advocates, through his challenges, through his struggles, through his success stories," the father said. "But in his death, we are more of an advocate for Ryan going forward, advocate for people with special needs, advocate for people with disabilities, advocate for people who have depression, advocate for those who have mental illness. That's what we want to do going forward, to be a voice for the people that don't have a voice."

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Federal civil rights lawsuit filed in killing of autistic teen by deputies in Apple Valley