The story of a young man with Asperger's, a form of autism, who was shot dead by cops in Florida last week is as confusing as it is sad. The mother of an 18-year-old man called the police for assistance responding to her son's menacing behavior. Suffering from depression, he was threatening to commit suicide with a knife in his hand. The mother hoped that the police would assist in taking him to a hospital and getting him proper medication. The police who responded went into the home and ended up shooting him with deadly force because of some perceived threat to their safety. Assuming that the cops were unable to approach him because of the knife, aren't they trained in other forms of restraint? And assuming that they absolutely had to shoot, aren't they trained in how to accomplish this without causing fatality? This is a heartbreaking tragedy for the family and a reprehensible and disgraceful intervention by the police department.