When a tragic suicide, as if there’s any other kind, makes the rounds on social media, there’s an outpouring of sympathy, “thoughts and prayers” and a push to try to do something to help. Someone did just that for 17-year-old John Albers in Overland Park, Kansas.
When 17-year-old John Albers threatened suicide on FaceTime, his friends called police.
Albers, a junior varsity soccer player and wrestler, was home alone on Jan. 20, 2018, in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, when police were called to the two-story house to check on him.
Was he a young man in distress? Maybe, though it’s a hard call to decide whether to act upon one’s concern, one’s fear. After all, what if, this time, he did it and you did nothing to stop it? Didn’t that make you complicit?
“He took pills, and (was) drinking heavily,” the dispatcher said. “He (the 911 caller) saw this on FaceTime. He (Albers) also told (the 911 caller) that he was going to stab himself and he’s done with life.”
Alpers was venting on FaceTime, and the unnamed caller saw it. He decided to do something and called police. It was out of concern. It was an effort to help someone. It cost Alpers his life.
When they arrived at the home, two officers never “announced their presence at the residence” or even knocked on the door, the complaint alleges. Several minutes later, the family’s two-car garage door began to rise, according to the lawsuit.
Officer Jenison began moving toward the vehicle and unholstered his weapon, as Albers backed out of the garage at about 2.5 mph in a straight line, the lawsuit alleges, noting that the officer’s actions were contrary to department policies and general law-enforcement standards.
Jenison allegedly yelled “Stop! Stop! Stop!” and waited only “one second” before he fired his pistol twice at Albers.
Why unholster his gun in the first place? He wasn’t there because of a crime, but to check on the welfare of a teenager. But in the scheme of welfare, Officer Clayton Jenison’s came first. So what if this teen had no idea there were police called to his home? So what if he didn’t know there would be a cop outside when he decided to take the minivan out of the garage?
Whether Albers presented a serious risk of harm to himself can’t be known. Kids can say things they don’t really mean. Sometimes it’s a cry for attention. Sometimes it’s just an emo indulgence. Sometimes it’s real. And people who see a teenager’s threat to “end it all” may have a strong sense of seriousness, or not a clue, but have been indoctrinated to “see something, say something.” After all, if someone seems to be a potential suicide, why wouldn’t you try to help?
Remember, the 911 caller who saw Albers’ threat of harm on FaceTime was just trying to help.
Maybe Albers’ parents knew better, knew that this was just some teenage angst and that their son was okay. Maybe his parents knew better than to call the cops, realizing that police may help or may kill, and they weren’t prepared to risk the latter for the former. Maybe his parents knew that in times of emotional, mental strains, the police are not the best choice of responders if you want someone to survive the encounter. And John Albers didn’t survive.
Video evidence from a neighbor’s front door camera shows the minivan’s rear brake lights activated as soon as the first shot was fired, according to the lawsuit. But Albers was allegedly hit, “rendering him incapacitated and completely unable to keep control of the minivan.”
Albers pulled the Honda minivan out of the garage, slowly as one ordinarily does. There was no reason he would have been aware of, or concerned about, the presence of a police officer outside his home. There was no reason a police officer should have been concerned about Albers.
Jenison—who was allegedly never in the path of the vehicle—fired 11 more shots at the minivan.
The first two bullets were the ones that mattered most, as the van whipping around so that its rear swung toward Jenison, causing the bizarre reaction to pump 11 more rounds into the back of a minivan as if that will make it stop. There was no reason to suspect Albers pulling out of the garage in the minivan was meant to pose a threat to Jenison. There was no reason to believe that it did. Yet the cop fired at the teen whose welfare he was there to check.
“These are tragic situations,” [Johnson County Prosecutor Steve] Howe said. “No officer I know wants to take a person’s life.”
Howe’s review of an investigation by a team of law enforcement officials from neighboring departments determined that the officer was reasonably in fear for his life.
“Under Kansas law, this was a proper use of force,” he said.
Even under the Reasonably Scared Cop Rule, Jenison’s claim of fear stretches the argument beyond its breaking point. There was nothing about the situation that gave rise to a claim of fear.*
There was nothing physically that justified fear of harm, even if inadvertent. Even if mom’s minivan was aiming at Jenison, which it wasn’t, it was moving at a crawl. Even if Jenison was in the line of the minivan backing out, which he wasn’t, he could have stepped out of the way. And a detail that may not be apparent at first is that Jenison could not have known who was driving that minivan with certainty. He might have killed mom rather than John. He wouldn’t know for sure until after he stopped firing.
Albers family is suing the police, the town and Jenison, who has since resigned from the police force “for personal reasons.” Whether they can overcome Qualified Immunity given that prosecutor’s conclusion that Jenison was in “reasonable fear” by cop-delusion remains to be seen. but even if you think it ill-advised to call the cops for a welfare check, you can’t stop someone who sees something on social media and decides that calling the cops is a good idea because they want to be empathetic and helpful.
*Yes, there is a thing called “suicide by cop,” which occurs when someone threatens to harm a police officer in order to induce the cops to kill the person. That didn’t happen here. There was nothing here whatsoever to suggest anything of the sort.
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