When Celina of Panorama City (who requested her last name not be used) recently heard her sister Alondra’s voice for the first time in months, she recognized her immediately.
Unfortunately, said Celina, the circumstances were appalling: her older sister had forwarded her an Instagram video containing disturbing footage – it was their younger sister Alondra, who is autistic and non-verbal, being handcuffed and surrounded by multiple law enforcement officers.
Although her sister’s face is largely obscured by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and others in the one-minute and 42-second video, Celina knew in her heart that it was Alondra when she heard her vocalizing and occasionally yelling out during the April 16 incident.
“I was shocked, I was sad, because I never expected to see a video of her like that,” Celina told the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. She was also “very confused,” she added. “I thought she was in the hospital, so I felt kind of speechless because I didn’t understand what was going on.”
Celina said her sister, Alondra, who is 27, was admitted to Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City last September. The facility has a 60-bed inpatient behavioral health unit for adults. While Celina doesn’t know all the details regarding the situation, she believes her sister is currently under county conservatorship and said the family was prohibited from visiting her.
Until they discovered the video last week, they thought Alondra was still at Mission Community Hospital.
Celina quickly shared the video clip with her mother, who confirmed what Celina, her older sister, and their brother already knew: that was definitely their sister Alondra in the video.
“My mom instantly knew that it was her,” said Celina.
Her mother, she said, was also sad, perplexed and disturbed by what they saw in the video clip.
Video Shows LAPD Handcuffing Autistic Woman
As the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol previously reported, Chatsworth resident Stephanie Orlando was driving through a shopping center parking lot April 16 when she saw two care providers outside a Smart and Final store in Northridge, standing over Alondra – who was laying on the ground, alert and moving, but not violent. They looked like they didn’t know what to do.
Orlando, who has an autistic son, realized that the woman on the ground was likely experiencing a sensory crisis and offered to help. The two women told her that Alondra had recently been released from a full-time care facility, and didn’t mention Mission Community Hospital. They said she was at a care facility in Northridge and they had taken her on an outing to the store.
The care providers claimed she became aggressive when they tried to get her back in the van.
Orlando intervened to help – calming Alondra by speaking with her, walking with her, holding her hand and even sitting with her to watch animated “Bluey” videos on Orlando’s phone. But when the workers tried to physically shove her into the vehicle, Alondra became agitated again.
That’s when the care providers called the LAPD, and the officers took over shortly after they arrived. Orlando captured their interactions with Alondra on video, which shows her being held with her face pressed against a wall as officers were forcefully pulling her arms back behind her.
Up to five officers surrounded Alondra, who was visibly distressed and struggling as she vocalized loudly. She ended up on the ground, with her hands loosely handcuffed as officers continued pulling back her arms – they didn’t want her to run away, an officer told Orlando.
But according to Orlando, the officers never employed any de-escalation measures with Alondra, such as slowing down their interactions with her or using verbal communications. In fact, she noted, from the moment they arrived, the officers didn’t give Alondra any specific commands.
“They never said, ‘Can you walk this way’ or anything like that,” recounted Orlando. “They also didn’t ask the [care providers], ‘Can you try to get her safely into the ambulance?’ And they didn’t ask me … ‘Since she trusts you, do you think you could attempt to [guide her] to the ambulance?’ There was absolutely no necessary reason that they needed to manhandle her.”
Why Wasn’t a Crisis Team Member with LAPD?
Orlando also asked the officers if they would call in a crisis team – with licensed mental health clinicians, called the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART) – which can be dispatched to provide on-scene assessments and help de-escalate mental health and autism crises.
The LAPD officers refused to do so, claimed Orlando. “They didn’t want to,” she said.
About a week after the incident, Orlando said LAPD Capt. Samer Issa contacted her to discuss her concerns, but then refused to answer specific questions or provide any statement. She believes that likely happened because she requested an internal affairs investigation of the incident. Orlando said she also requested the officers’ bodycam video footage from that day.
April was Autism Awareness Month, which aims to foster understanding and support for autistic individuals, yet incidents involving law enforcement officers and autistic youth and adults continue to happen, highlighting the need for further education and training.
More than two decades ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation published a bulletin announcement indicating that “officers should not interpret an autistic individual’s failure to respond to orders or questions as a lack of cooperation or as a reason for increased force.”
The San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol has reached out to the LAPD to ask what official department protocol officers are currently required to follow when a situation involves an autistic individual, like Alondra, and why a SMART team wasn’t dispatched. They did not respond by press time.
‘Too Much Force’
After watching the video, Celina felt the officers used “too much force” on her sister.
“I feel like they could have just used maybe two officers. They didn’t have to bring out so many. It obviously overwhelmed her too much, seeing so many people swarm around her,” said Celina. “I wish they could have done things differently. … I wish they could have [used] less force.
“It’s hard to see her in the video – seeing her by herself,” she added. After viewing the clip, Celina immediately tracked down Orlando, who originally posted the video, and reached out to her. When they spoke on the phone, Orlando told Celina everything she had witnessed that day.
Celina and Orlando have since both spoken with representatives of Disability Rights California (DRC), the largest disability rights organization in the country. They were told the organization is currently gathering information regarding the incident and exploring possible next steps.
For now, Celina said her family is still trying to find out where Alondra was transferred after she was released from the hospital. The care providers told Orlando that she didn’t have any family.
“They told Stephanie that [Alondra] had no family, that she didn’t have anybody. That really upset me, because it isn’t true,” said Celina. “She has my mom, she has me and she has the rest of the family – my other sister, my brother, my dad. So there are people who care about her.
“I miss my sister. I wish she could be back home with my mom,” she continued, recounting that Alondra enjoys listening to Spanish music, which helps calm her down, and always loved being around Celina’s three children. “They would always make her smile.”
Celina said she’s thankful that Orlando cared enough to stop and help her sister when she saw what was happening, and that Alondra found a “safe place” with Orlando, albeit temporary.
“I am very grateful that she stopped and that she did take the video, because we wouldn’t have known anything if she hadn’t,” said Celina. “Obviously, we’re sad about what happened – we didn’t want to see her that way, in that situation. But we were able to see a glimpse of her.
“I’m glad that Stephanie was so nice with my sister, because [Alondra] is not easy going with just anybody,” she added. “I’m happy that she was able to feel safe with Stephanie.”
Orlando said she’s just grateful that she was in the right place at the right time.
“It feels weird to accept [praise] about what I did,” said Orlando. “I saw a woman in crisis and I did what I could.”
The emergency phone numbers to contact the Los Angeles County SMART Team (Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team) – who are dispatched in situations involving autism and various mental health crises – are 988 or 1-800-854-7771.