Transgender Man With Asperger’s, Who Touched Millions With Viral Video, Shot Dead By Arizona Cops

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Danielle Jacobs aka Kayden Clarke, a 24-year-old woman who identified herself as a man, was killed by Arizona police officers at his home after claiming that Kayden, a transsexual man with Asperger’s syndrome, moved toward them with a knife forcing them to fire in self-defense. Kayden was taken to a hospital following the incident but did not survive the injuries.

Detective Esteban Flores with the Mesa Police Department told AZ Family that on February 4 around 11 a.m. police received multiple calls about a suicidal man. When officers responded to Kayden’s apartment, he told them that he had a knife and was going to hurt himself. At this time, police claim, Kayden came at the officers, who were not wearing body cameras, with the knife causing them to fear for their lives – so they fired their duty weapons [perhaps backing up was not an option].

“She had one knife that we know of, she had something else we’re not sure what it was, the officers said it was dark inside the room. When she made contact with them she approached them with the knife, extended it out, and they felt threatened.”

Kayden’s mother, Stacia told The Daily News that the shooting was not necessary as Kayden wasn’t posing a threat.

“I talked to her last night and the night before and she seemed fine. Before the police arrived she wasn’t posing a threat to the community at all. And the police came into her own place. They shot and killed a 24-year-old autistic, mentally ill individual whom they had been familiar with and were aware of her special needs. ”

In June 2015, Kayden posted a video on YouTube, showing him having a meltdown due to Asperger’s syndrome and trying to punch himself, and Rottweiler Samson aiding him parrying the blows with its paws, which soon went viral. The video, since made private after it was viewed more than 2.4 million times, shows Kayden hitting himself in the chest and head and Samson using his paw and his body to block Kayden’s hands from his head.

“It’s like a computer. There’s too much input, there’s not enough output, you lose control and you crash. That’s what it feels like to have a meltdown. When I have a meltdown, I often have self-injurious behavior and I often self-harm,” Kayden explained to The Huffington Post.

At the time of his death, Kayden was working at Target; at Christmas time, he delivered Christmas gifts and ornaments to needy families in Mesa.

According to the Autism Asperger’s Network, 1 in 500 Americans live with Asperger’s syndrome. And according to a 2014 UCLA study, 4.6% of the overall US population has self-reported a suicide attempt, with that number climbing to between 10 and 20% for lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents. By comparison, 41% of trans or gender non-conforming people surveyed attempted suicide.


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23 COMMENTS

  1. FUCK THE POLICE COMING STRAIGHT FROM THE UNDERGROUND ! Get Weapons always Ready too shoot them First…. American Police are Killers nothing more.

    • I would not say that. Their are good and bad apples in every bunch. Some Police officers truly want to help, and others have no business being an officer. I believe they should have better evaluation training if anything.

      • The saying is actually that a few bad apples spoil the bunch. It means that if the apples aren’t routinely removed when they go bad, then soon all the apples will be bad.

  2. It will be the same story. As it always is. The cops feared for there lives. This is an epidemic in America. As mentioned why don’t the cops back up or use another method of stopping the people involved in these events?
    Cops do not seem to care because there will be no repercussions or accountability held by them.
    There is no justification for taking a life in most of the circumstances that have been reported. There is always another way that would save lives rather than take them. I guess it comes down to the training and mental stability of the cops themselves.

    • Because evrybody has the right to bear arms AND DOES!!!They were there because there was a threat, then they were threatened!

  3. I’d really like to see how it went down but I’m guessing the use of force was more than unacceptable. No tasers? No pepper spray? No fuckin men to stand up and go had to hand with a handicap? What a sad day. I usually root for the police. Not these wastes of skin.

    • Yeah, tasers should be the go to weapon, guns should be a last resort. Even then, one shot to the foot would’ve done. Surely it was more than that for them to have died as a result of their injuries.

  4. Fuck you, you pathetic son of a bitches. Loser ass, pig ass police. I am not one of those “Fuck the police” kind of people but I hope you all pay by getting your own worthless lives taken in the worst fucking way. Poor boy…

  5. ANY cop who NEEDS to shoot ANYONE carrying ONLY a knife, SHOULDN’T be allowed to play with sharp toys let alone HAVE A GUN!!!! FUCKING LOWLIFE COWARDS!!!!

  6. Weird that we don’t see more dead cops here in Norway where the police don’t regularly carry guns around. Plenty of crazy people with knives here to. Here the police usually resolve things without any gun pointing involved. Even pretty hairy situations gets resolved without deadly weapons.

    Might be that norwegian cops are just lazy and don’t want all the paperwork of unlocking the guns from the car. Pretty shure you have to file a report just for opening the gun compartment here. But anyways, people don’t get shot here unless they really make an effort for it.

    Suicide by cop requires alot more work here…

    • The city I live in actually had a court case by a fellow who wanted to be a cop. His IQ was actually too high and he was denied the job, courts upheld the decision.

  7. The IQ of these officers is below 80 for sure! So a person extends a knife and you dont back up but you shoot them wen they clearly need help! They should be jailed! Have a lie detector test and than locked up! This is insane how many officers are running around that should not own a driving licence yet a gun!!!

  8. Too shoot and serve. Do they even get other policetraining than using firearms?
    Policemen and women should be our heroes, not cowards always “feeling threatened” and taking the easiest way out. It is easy to shoot someone, much harder to protect and serve..

  9. I have Asperger’s Syndrome and I can tell you that even if I was suicidal I would not hurt anyone other than myself. Aspies are incredibly logical and so are autistic individuals. Police are not trained to handle disabled people and should be better trained. I think there should be a department of civilians who’s job is to go over everything recorded by cops and to prevent these civilians from being hurt by the job they should be switched out and see doctors who care. It seems that cops have a lot of misconceptions about people with disabilities.

  10. I do not think it is the police officers fault but a fault with our police system. We train our cops to shoot first and ask questions later. Obviously, we need to train cops to use their tasers when responding to a suicidal individual.

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