State College attorneys Kathleen Yurchak and Andrew Shubin announced they are representing the family of 29-year-old Osaze Osagie — who was fatally shot at his apartment by a State College police officer on March 20, according to a press release.

Osagie, who was autistic, was shot and killed when officers responded to a mental health warrant.

His parents, Sylvester and Iyunolo Osagie, are struggling to understand how a request for assistance to ensure their sons safety ended up in his death.

“It’s a parents worst nightmare,” Andrew Shubin said. “They went to the police for help and instead, their son died from police gunfire.”

Shubin is a civil rights attorney who has worked closely with the American Civil Liberties Union for the past 25 years.

The executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Reggie Shuford, released a statement on Wednesday calling for transparency and accountability in the case.

“The public deserves full disclosure of the details of how Osaze died, including the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot, any video and audio recordings that are available, and 911 telephone recordings,” Shuford said in the statement. “The State College Police Department also owes the public full disclosure on how its officers are trained to respond to calls about people with mental health disabilities.”

The ACLU called people being killed by police, who are supposed to protect and serve, in America “an epidemic.”

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“Osaze’s death was a senseless tragedy. Our hearts are with his family and friends in their time of mourning,” Shuford said. “The tragedy of police violence in America will end only when public officials take it seriously.”

Sylvester Osagie, father of the victim, is a Penn State University administrator and Labor Employment Relations professor who has provided training to police officers and taught students who have gone on to law enforcement careers.

“As the father of an autistic, African American son and as an academic, I am acutely aware of the staggering number of tragic police encounters with those experiencing mental health issues and persons of color,” Osagie said. “The decisions to ask the police for help is difficult and fraught with peril… I felt I needed to do everything possible to make sure that my son was safe.”

Osagie’s mother, Dr. Iyunolu Osagie, cited previous positive interactions with the State College Police Department and former Chief Tom King.

“What happened to our son is even more difficult to fathom given how accepting the community has been of our family and Osaze, in particular, since we moved to State College in 1992,” Osagie said. “We want answers to how and why our son died.”

The family’s attorneys discussed the importance of a “rigorous, independent, and transparent investigation, which includes an assessment of the role that mental health and race may have played in the shooting” at a meeting with them on Tuesday.

Shubin and Yurchak expressed to the Osagie family and the State College community that the inquiry into this incident be broader “than an examination of the actions of individual officers.”

“A tragedy like this demands critical scrutiny and reform of law enforcement practices and policies.” the two said.

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