In memoriam Kevin Colindres
January 6, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
More sad news. 18-year-old Kevin Colindres died yesterday, January 5th, in the afternoon. Kevin, who has autism and lived in Miami, has been in a coma since December 12th when police came to his house. The police were responding to a 911 call from Kevin’s sister, according to which he “‘’was having a violent episode and hitting everyone in the home,’” in the words of Angel Calzadilla, executive assistant to Miami Police Chief John Timoney (source). Today’s Miami Herald provides a detailed narrative of what happened when the police arrived; Kevin was restrained by the hands and feet by police.
The Colindres family is suing the Miami police; an autopsy will be conducted to determined how Kevin Colindres died.
hi sorry to hear the sad news
he is at peace now out of the autism world
of tourment.
he is at peace now out of the world of people who don’t understand auties. does that mean all of us should be “put to peace”?! … or that people should maybe learn how to understand us better?!
PS: i am not entirely sure that dead auties cease being autistic. of course this is so speculative and opinions will be so dependent on people’s individual religious beliefs that it is probably not really something fit for arguing about.
Autism isnt torment.
People saying it is gets damned annoying though.
May he rest in peace, and may no other autistic go through what Kevin did.
I think Kevin’s death is a reminder of the need for better support for families with autistic children. This was not the first time Kevin’s family had to call the police because of a violent outburst. Clearly this young man was in need of intervention. Would he have benefited from behavioral psychology? Would a group home have helped him gain more independence and learn to handle his emotions? Would family support, including respite care, have helped his parents cope better? Further investigations will reveal who, if anyone, was “at fault” for his death. But he is still gone and his family will have to live with this tragic loss. A loss that should have been preventable, in my opinion.
I dont think a family ever NEEDS to call the police on their kid. Especially when the police are as poorly trained/as unable to act on specialized training as these were. it’s EASIER than finding another option, but no one NEEDS to.
My 6′4″ 300 pound stepdad thought it was great fun to get me all agitated and call on me (I’m 5′4″ and didn’t pass 100 pounds till I was 16, and dropped below off and on through till fairly recently), saying how I was huge and threatening. Everyone in the city knew my last name, and assumed it to be true because of that. The bad ones would threaten me with what Kevin got (and I’d be staring at them asking if they LIKED picking on 85 pound girls, this was in 8th grade or so), the good ones would tell my stepdad to get a hobby. One suggested my mom get a divorce.
Pretending that cops don’t go on power trips is burying one’s head in the sand, and these REALLY have no excuse for not having the training, given that the best known autism/law enforcement trainer (Dennis Debbaudt) is right in their back yard.
I have to wonder if more details about the situtation in Kevin’s family might eventually be made known, or if the family might choose not to, for privacy. By remembering him, I hope this kind of tragedy does not happen again (though I fear I am being rather optimistic to say so…..).
Its sad to hear his life ended the way it did.I knew him and his family, my sympathy goes out to the Colindres family. Rest in Peace Kevin.