I have an autistic son. He's almost 3 years old. The autistic man in this story is 23. This kind of thing scares the hell out of me for him. I know it wasn't HIM who was wounded, but it could've gone that way.

Someone called the cops because they thought the autistic man's toy truck was a gun, and he is very verbally expressive - he yells things. In this story is was a lot of "Shut up!" I can see why someone would be alarmed, considering a grown man has a thing in his hand, yelling at the other man... but instead of trying to figure out what's going on, we shoot first, then analyze later.

This is terrifying. I fear for my son's future safety for reasons like this, because he behaves in a similar manner even now. Granted, in 20 years he may behave differently, but no one can say for sure until we get there. I don't want my son's disability to be misconstrued for a threat.

I mean Jesus Christ...it looks like all he wanted to do was play with his truck. Without knowing for sure, this is speculation, but it could have just been the caretaker trying to get him to move along so they weren't in the street, but if you've ever had to spend time with or take care of an autistic individual, a lot of the time they don't just go when told. When they find a comfortable spot, they try to stay there. If that was the case, then I can see where the yelling began, garnering the attention of nearby people, thus resulting in a call to the police.