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Police shoot, kill woman with Asperger's
00:45 - Source: KNXV

Story highlights

Danielle Jacobs was shot and killed by police in Arizona

Police said she had a knife and that they didn't know she had Asperger's syndrome

CNN  — 

The man shot to death by police in Mesa, Arizona, struggled with more than Asperger’s syndrome.

Last June, the 24-year-old woman posted a YouTube video of a breakdown in which she wept, berated herself and punched her chest until Samson, her service Rottweiler, jumped up and blocked her blows. Finally, she slumped to the floor and embraced the dog.

Police in Mesa, Arizona, say they didn’t know Jacobs had Asperger’s, a high-functioning variant of autism, when they shot and killed her Thursday.

Officers went to her home after receiving reports a woman was threatening to kill herself, Detective Estaban Flores said at a Friday news briefing.

Two officers were talking to Jacobs through an open door in the hallway when she emerged and lunged at them with a large kitchen knife, he said.

“At that point they felt their lives were threatened,” Flores said. Both officers fired their weapons, he said.

‘My daughter died asking for help’

Clarke’s mother, Stacia, told CNN affiliate KPHO that police overreacted. She said nobody was in danger from her child, whom she referred to using the feminine.

“My daughter died for asking for help,” she said Friday. “She was in her own place. And regardless of what she was thinking, what she was doing, she wasn’t posing a danger to the community. There has to be better way for law enforcement to respond and handle situations.”

Clarke was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in 2013, reported KPHO.

People with Asperger’s are often exceptionally intelligent and verbally gifted, but they also can be socially awkward.

They may react to stress differently and at times more emotionally than others not on the autism spectrum.

A life shared on social media

Like many people his age, Clarke shared life through social media.

In one YouTube video he described “stimming” – self-stimulating behavior such as patting the chest. He read text from a cellphone and explained the odd, repetitive motions.

“I’m trying to calm myself from being overwhelmed,” he said.

In another video he sobs and says he’s distraught about learning vocational education workers wouldn’t continue to support his quest for a college education.

“They kept leading me on and leading me on,” he said.

Police didn’t know ‘her mental and cognitive abilities’

Clarke and police had one previous interaction, Flores said – a call in which he complained about Internet harassment.

“Other than that we had no indication of who she was or what her mental and cognitive abilities were at that time,” Flores said.

After receiving the call Thursday, officers went to the house and were let inside by one of Clarke’s friends, Flores said.

While the two officers – one with training in crisis intervention – talked to Clarke, a third went to his police vehicle to obtain a “less than lethal” device, such as a bean-bag shotgun, Flores said.

Before that officer returned, Clarke came out of the door with a knife with an 8-inch blade, he said.

They told him to drop the weapon but Clarke “lunged extending the knife toward the officers from a very close distance,” he said.

No body cameras

Neither officer wore body cameras, he said. Both had stun guns but those devices “sometimes become ineffective when someone starts moving a lot,” he said.

Flores said the Mesa department had already increased the number of officers with training in crisis intervention.

“Officers receive enhanced training, focusing on how to identify and assist in situations involving individuals suffering from mental illness and cognitive disabilities,” he said.

The officers were placed on administrative leave.

“At this time we express our sympathies to Danielle’s family and her friend’s,” Flores said. “Obviously they’re going through a tough time right now – it’s tough losing somebody like this.”