Eden Prairie, Minnesota: Timothy Aleshire, 27, dies after being restrained at work

Timothy Aleshire, age 27

Gail Rosenblum: Could training in restraint use have averted this tragedy?

Nancy Aleshire is fighting mad. Her son, Timothy Aleshire, 27, was near death Wednesday, after being physically restrained by four people at his state-operated workplace in Eden Prairie.

Aleshire isn't making excuses for her son, who has struggled for years with schizophrenia, developmental disabilities and Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. She is candid about his violent history, including coming at his 4-foot-10 mother with a knife on a few occasions, and nearly strangling her on another. The key word, though, is "history."

For the past four or five years, Tim, who lives in a group home in Minneapolis with a trained, round-the-clock staff, has been making impressive progress. He was taking his antipsychotic medication and hadn't struck his mother in that entire time. He was not problem-free, but his emotional outbursts were fewer and his strategy for dealing with them encouraging.

"When he would see himself getting aggressive, he would go into his room, as opposed to hurting somebody," Nancy said. "That's where he was at."

Something happened Dec. 31 that caused him to swing at a co-worker at Metro Resources Technology Park. He was held down for an unknown period, then rushed to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina. According to the medical report, he had no pulse for 30 minutes.

His mother signed papers Tuesday to allow his organs to be donated should the time come. She hopes criminal charges will be filed or, at least, somebody will get fired.

"My question is: Why four people?" she said. "Being the victim of Tim's assaults, I certainly understand the need for restraining him, but that never resulted in him losing consciousness and going into cardiac arrest.

"Tim," she said, "would want me to fight for him."

Finger-pointing is human, but more helpful is a transparent investigation, which the police and state Department of Human Services have promised.

Disabled man dies of injuries after being restrained at work
Star Tribune

Tim Aleshire, a 27-year-old developmentally disabled man injured while being restrained last week by a handful of people at his state-operated workplace in Eden Prairie, has died, his mother said.

Nancy Aleshire said that her son died Friday. She has yet to hear what the Hennepin County medical examiner's office has determined about the cause of Tim's death.

He was injured Dec. 31 when four people at Metro Resources Technology Park restrained him as he tried to assault a co-worker, Nancy Aleshire said. He remained unconscious until his death, she said.

Police in Eden Prairie are investigating the death. The state Department of Human Services, which runs Metro Resources, is conducting an internal inquiry. Neither is saying more about the case.

Aleshire said Monday that she has hired an attorney to pursue a civil wrongful-death claim against Metro Resources and possibly others.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Torrance Cantrell, 8, dies after parishoners perform exorcism for his autism

Torrance Cantrell, age 8

Autistic Boy Dies During Exorcism
8-Year-Old Wrapped In Sheets During Storefront Prayer Service

(CBS/AP) An autistic 8-year-old boy died while wrapped in sheets during a prayer service held to exorcise the evil spirits that church members blamed for his condition.

The minister who performed the service was arrested in connection with the death, which occurred Friday night at a church in a run-down strip mall.

The mother had been taking her son to Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith three times a week for the last three weeks in hopes of curing his autism, said Bishop David Hemphill Sr.

It was after more than an hour of prayer that a parishioner noticed the boy was no longer moving and called emergency workers, Hemphill said. The boy's grandmother said force was used, an allegation disputed by church members.

“We were asking God to take this spirit that was tormenting this little boy to death,” Hemphill said. “We were praying that hard, but not to kill.”

Hemphill identified the boy as Torrance Cantrell and the man arrested as Ray Hemphill, his brother and another minister who led Friday's service. David Hemphill said he has not talked to his brother or the boy's mother, Patricia Cooper, since Friday night. Cooper could not be reached for comment.

Police have not released the boy's name but have said they don't believe he was struck. The results of an autopsy also have not been disclosed.

Church members had wrapped the boy in sheets to keep him from scratching himself and others, but he was allowed to sit “any way that he feels comfortable,” Hemphill said.

The boy's grandmother said the boy had been restrained.

“They held the boy down, they held him down until ... he went to a smothery grave,” Mary Luckett told Milwaukee television station WTMJ.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that David Hemhill's wife, Pamela Hemphill, said that Torrance's mother held the boy's feet and two other women held the boy's hands during the prayer session.

David Hemphill started the independent church in 1997. It meets twice a week and has a congregation of six families.

Cooper, the boy's mother, started coming to the church about three months ago after she met a parishioner at a doctor's office, Hemphill said. Cooper told the parishioner about her son's autism, and the church member invited her to a Sunday service. She joined the next week.

A makeshift memorial with four colored candles and a few stuffed animals sat on a window ledge outside the boy's home Sunday.