Autistic Kills Mother

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Poor woman. Poor kid. It seems she also had him quite late in life. This shouldn't have happened, but as he is autistic, he shouldn't be put in jail, but he shouldn't be allowed to roam free. This is incredibly sad.

In other words, you're ready to blame anybody but the actual perpetrator because he is autistic and that is your bias.

You'd be singing a different tune, my friend, if the murder victim had been autistic. You'd be howling for blood. You wouldn't be so wishy-washy.

He needs to be in some kind of institution. He may have been unable to comprehend his actions or their consequences due to mental defect, but obviously he's a threat to the safety of others.

God, it sounds like he killed her with his bare hands.

Sorry, I just can't sympathize with someone who beats their own mother to death. I don't care what kind of mental defect is involved ...

I can't either. But I really don't believe it was because she was his mother. He probably just got more upset than usually, and because of his large size, she died.

Generally, if you have to change what I'm saying to understand it, that means that you aren't having a good understanding of what I'm saying.

This statement is suggesting that I am not ready to start placing blame at all. I don't howl for blood. people will die, autistic or not. crimes will be commited againt people, autistic or not.

An example of my focus would be this. Think back to 200 years ago. What idea should we have about the people that lived 200 years ago. Should it be limited to who is to blame for their deaths and the fact that it's sad that EVERYONE from 200 years ago is dead? Or would it be more productive to be able to learn everything we can from these people? Would you prefer that people 200 years from now simply mourn your death or be able to benefit from your life?

Last edited by Shayne on 11 Feb 2009, 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Would you feel the same about this story if it had been an NT parent murdering the autistic child?

Um...Of course not. Because this boy is *severely* Autistic. He cannot rationalize the way an NT parent can. It would be a completely different situation.

Have you ever done jury duty?

no

The severly autistic cannot be allowed to commit crimes. They may not understand the law, but that does not put them above it.

I never said they were above the law. He didn't understand what he was doing. That is why he shouldn't go to jail. He should be institutionalized, where he cannot hurt anyone. If he went to jail it wouldn't serve any purpose. They wouldn't know how to take care of him, and it would cause more problems than it would solve, either he, or more likely other inmates would be at risk for getting hurt.

Unfortunately the same person responsible for the child's actions is also the victim.

But there's many things we'll never know about this. Did the mother do all she could to control her son's behavior? Did the son knowingly kill his mother despite her attempts to teach him right from wrong? We will never know.

I think it's fruitless to argue back and forth like that, by the way. And it's very annoying.

??? There was no arguing. We were discussing the article.

Consequences topic

From the article Walker's mother stated to her friend that she was not afraid of her son. But nowhere in the article stated whether there were outside agencies involved in the care of this child when the mother was at work, or programs in place to help him deal with frustration.

I worked briefly in a group home with five very large and very violent intellectually challenged males. One regularly would throw sharp items at me. Very frightening. I was not allowed to retaliate, of course, or complain. If I could not handle it, I could quit, which I did. Any assault could not be punishable due to these males' incompetence, according to Mental Health Regulations.

Perhaps Trudy thought she could anticipate danger and take evasive action. I got the impression reading this article that this was not the first time she had been in this situation.

If Walker had a meltdown and was in a blind rage he would not see or even realize who he was beating. According to one source in the article, such violence by Autistics is quite rare.

Walker may well not be legally punished because of incompetency, which will have to be determined using legal means. A Judge in a Court of Law may determine that Walker will be incarcerated in a mental health facility indefinitely, until he is deemed 'cured'. This happens in Ontario.

Just a terrible tragedy. But this is a wake-up call for parents to realize they need help and cannot do everything alone.

I'm not sure why he killed his mother. Could he be having a meltdown so he was hitting her or beating her she died? I know some autistic kids tend to be violent but how can they not understand what they are doing? They aren't ret*d, they are smart too as everyone else so how can it stop them from knowing right from wrong? But I have also been told sometimes they don't even know they are doing it or they can't control their impulses but that doesn't mean they didn't understand what they did later on. He probably knows he killed his mother so he is sitting in that cell and killing is illegal. What's there to not get why you're there if you have killed someone? Does he not know killing is wrong? Autism doesn't stop us from knowing it is illegal to kill someone or you go to jail.


I think the mother should have gotten him help a long time ago. When an autistic child has the tendency to be violent, think of their future, someday they will be bigger than you and might do serious injuries. It's best to start when they are young instead of waiting till they are older or waiting till it's too late. It's not fair to the child because they might throw their life away behind bars or in a institution if they have their violent meltdown or start hurting others to express themselves. I have often felt like hurting people too in the past but I knew what would have happened if I started attacking people, getting punished by the school and then I learned if I did that out in the real world, jail time because I have heard about people getting arrested for fighting. That told me how wrong it is to do. Jail is a place to go when you break the law so if someone was arrested for fighting, that means psychical fighting is illegal. Sure if it was self defense because someone was trying to mug you or rape you or beat you, that be different.

I find it funny how people have to pass assumptions by assuming someone didn't know what they were doing or what they did was wrong because of their disability such as severe autism.
Does it really stop them from knowing what the laws are? I mean if they heard about someone being arrested for doing X, shouldn't they know of "if I do that, I go to jail to so never do that."
That's how I learn. I don't want to go to jail so I must not do things against the law that would send me there.

Sadly people confuse communication problems with mental retardation however their is research that shows autism doesn't cause mental retardation just the illusion of retardation.