The Unfortunate Killing of 17-Year-Old Jacob Albrethsen

  "Please don't shoot my son," the mother pleaded with police. "Please don't shoot him. He's little."
But 17-year-old Jacob E. Albrethsen, a student at Orem High School, was indeed shot dead by officers that Oct. 12th day in 2018.
   Jacob had locked himself into the home, locking his mother out. He had missed school for three weeks following a break up with his girlfriend. The mother was also concerned that he might be using methamphetamine. The boy had been acting paranoid, she said. He had been making statements that if anyone attacked him, he would kill them.
   Emotional turmoil, mental illness, even drug usage -- those are all reasons for calling the Mobil Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT) hotline. Perhaps, the mother did not even know the hotline existed. Or, maybe she needed help getting into the home she was locked out of and she felt the police were more suited for that.
 At any rate, she called the police. Had she called MCOT, perhaps things would have turned out differently.
 Officers found Jacob hiding in a bedroom closet with a knife in his hand. They told him to put the knife down. Jacob didn't drop the knife, but instead tried to get out of the closet. One of the officers blocked his exit with the door. The officer shot at the boy with his Taser, but it either missed or didn't work at all.
  Somewhere in there was when the mother pleaded, "Please don't shoot my son. Please don't shoot him."
  Officers say the boy then lunged at them. Who knows if the boy was trying no more than just to escape from them since they had him cornered. He was surely as frightened as they.
   One of the officers then fired. The boy fell back, but the knife was still in his hand. He attempted to get up, and tried to move the closet door out of his way to get out, and an officer shot him again. At end, six gunshot wounds were found.
   At what point would it have been better for the officers to have said, Let's leave him there. Let's leave him alone. Let's back out of the house for now, and call the MCOT social workers. They are trained to deal with those with mental issues. If they still want us to go back in ahead of them, we will, but let's let them make that call, since they have the training.
   Are officers even trained to work with MCOT? Do they even consider calling MCOT?
  Was the killing justified? Could officers have done something to avoid it?
   The two officers wore body cams, but I did not find footage of the shooting posted on YouTube. Was it? If not, why not?

(Index: Questionable shootings)