Parents of autistic teen arrested by Alberta RCMP call for charges, improved training

Ryley Bauman takes his stuffed Grover doll and pul‐ ls the toy's blue hands to‐ gether before binding them tightly with string.

It's a troubling habit for the autistic 18-year-old, one that began after he was ar‐ rested in October 2022 at a St. Albert playground and then detained in an RCMP holding cell where five offi‐ cers kneeled on him as para‐ medics administered a seda‐ tive.

Laura Hawthorne says her son - who is non-verbal and functions at the age of seven year-old - remains trauma‐ tized by his time in custody. He continues to relive the or‐ deal by "arresting" his favourite toys.

"He always wants us to rescue them," Hawthorne said. "He always brings them to me, and then he wants me to untie them and say, 'It's OK' and to hug them and to hold them."

Ryley's parents still have questions about how RCMP justified their son's arrest and new doubts about the strength of the systems in‐ tended to hold police ac‐ countable.

They're calling for in‐ creased transparency in in‐ vestigations into officer con‐ duct, improved disability awareness training for RCMP, and for the officers who ar‐ rested their son to face pros‐ ecution.

An investigation report from Alberta's police watch‐ dog, the Alberta Serious Inci‐ dent Response Team, re‐ leased March 27, found that the arresting officers mistak‐ enly identified Ryley as a known drug user and mis‐ took the teen's neurodiver‐ gence for intoxication.

In its report, ASIRT said charges of unlawful confine‐ ment and assault could be considered against the offi‐ cers for detaining the teen without proper grounds and for the use of force during his arrest.

There were "reasonable grounds to believe that an of‐ fence may have been com‐ mitted by the subject offi‐ cers," ASIRT concluded.

ASIRT referred the matter to the Alberta Crown Prose‐ cution Service for an opinion on whether charges should be laid. The Crown said the case did not meet the stan‐ dard for prosecution.

An internal RCMP investi‐ gation into the arrest is com‐ plete. The officers remain on active duty.

Aaron Krause said his son can't forget what happened. Handcuffing his toys is one way that Ryley's trauma and lingering confusion continue to surface.

Ryley, who was 16 at the time of the arrest, now suf‐ fers from chronic anxiety and regular panic attacks. He is being treated for post-trau‐ matic stress disorder.

He is too afraid to play alone and can no longer visit his grandparents' home near the playground where he was arrested.

The sight of a person in uniform or a passing police vehicle can make him scream, Krause said.

WATCH | Ryley's parents say he can't forget what happened to him:

A recent outing at a bowl‐ ing alley ended in panic, Krause said. When a security guard walked by, Ryley fell to the floor yelling and put his hands behind his back.

"Police hurts" has become a common refrain for the teen, his father said.

Neither parent expects their son will ever recover.

"He doesn't forget any‐ thing," Krause said.

"His memories, they'll play on a loop. They don't go away.

"He'll replay it. And I think what hurts me the most is that he will do that and he'll ask me why. And I have no good answer for him."

Details revealed in the ASIRT report angered Ryley's parents.

The arresting officer told ASIRT investigators that he would have arrested anyone who was behaving the way Ryley was that day, and that the teen's actions made peo‐ ple in the park afraid.

'Lifelong damage'

Ryley's parents say police en‐ dangered their son by kneel‐ ing on him, and by allowing him to hit his head against a partition inside the police ve‐ hicle. He also hit his head against the door of the hold‐ ing cell at the St. Albert RCMP detachment.

Hawthorne said all RCMP officers should be trained in how to deal with people who have autism or other disabili‐ ties. She said social workers should be dispatched to all calls involving welfare checks.

"You teach your children from the time they are tiny, if you are in trouble, go to the badge, go to someone in uni‐ form, they will keep you safe," she said. "And now it's just fear."

In a statement to CBC, Al‐ berta RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Troy Savinkoff declined to comment on disciplinary actions the arresting officers may have faced, citing the RCMP Act.

Savinkoff said all St. Albert officers have taken autism training since Ryley's arrest.

Autism Edmonton, which offers services and supports to autistic people and their families, provided the train‐ ing at the detachment's re‐ quest.

Melinda Noyes, executive director of Autism Edmon‐ ton, said it's frustrating to see Ryley's case closed.

She said autistic people can be more vulnerable to negative encounters with police.

The case speaks to the im‐ portance of increased aware‐ ness among first responders and the broader community to guard against the kind of harmful assumptions that led to Ryley's arrest, Noyes said.

"It is our hope as an orga‐ nization that these incidents don't happen again, and I think from a preventative standpoint, going forward, that education is the key," she said.

"It's unfortunate that it takes an incident like this to be the catalyst."

Ryley's parents are talking to a lawyer about a possible lawsuit. They have asked the Crown to reverse course and be more transparent with families when charges against police are called for but never pursued.

"That is our plea, that the Crown take into account everything that has tran‐ spired from this and to con‐ sider the lifelong damage this has caused," she said.

"There needs to be ac‐ countability so that it doesn't happen again."