'He Can't Hear You!': Deaf Man Killed by OKC Police

Via NBC News online: The encounter unfolded after witnesses called police to report the hit-and-run, and said the driver, Sanchez's father, had fled the scene and driven to the residence. Mathews did not know if anyone was injured in the crash, but said the car hadn't struck any people.

Upon arriving at the house to investigate the accident, Lt. Matthew Lindsey saw Sanchez on the porch, holding a 2-foot-long metal pipe "wrapped in some type of material" with a small leather loop on the end of it, Mathews said.

A neighbor, Jolie Guebara, later told The Associated Press that Sanchez often carried the pipe to fend off stray dogs when he went for walks at night.

The lieutenant perceived the pipe as a weapon and called for backup. Sgt. Chris Barnes arrived.

"When the other unit arrived, verbal commands were being given to this individual to drop the weapon and get on the ground," Mathews said.

Instead of doing that, Sanchez kept moving toward officers, Mathews said. Lindsey and Barnes ordered him to "drop the weapon and get on the ground."

That's when witnesses started yelling "he can't hear you," according to Mathews.

"The witnesses were yelling that this person, Mr. Sanchez, was deaf, and could not hear," he said. "The officers did not know this as the time."

Mathews did not know whether the officers heard the witnesses' screams.

He said Lindsey then deployed his Taser and Barnes fired a gun when Sanchez had got about 15 feet away from them.

Both struck him. Sanchez was pronounced dead at the scene, despite medical attention that was given.

Sanchez's father, who was not named, confirmed to police that his son was deaf....

"When you have a weapon out, you can get what they call tunnel vision, or you can lock into just the person who has the weapon, the threat against you," the captain said. "I don't know exactly what the officers were thinking ... But they very well could have not heard everybody yelling around them."

"N.C. Trooper Fatally Shoots Deaf Man After Traffic Stop"

NBC News:   State trooper Jermaine Saunders shot Daniel Kevin Harris to death on Thursday after what North Carolina Bureau of Investigation described in a statement as "an encounter."

[A] neighbor of Harris', Mark Barringer, who witnessed part of the confrontation, criticized the trooper's handling of the pursuit.

"They should've deescalated and been trained to realize that this is an entirely different situation," Barringer told NBC affiliate WCNC. "You're pulling someone over who is deaf. They are handicapped."

Too often, Rosenblum said, officers order deaf people to comply with verbal commands — then act aggressively when they don't.

"This has led to many physical altercations between law enforcement officers and deaf individuals over the years, with some resulting in death," he said.

Little girl signing her Christmas pageant to her deaf parents

Little girl signing her Christmas pageant to her deaf parents from funny

Andrew Clemens

Andrew Clemens was born 1857 to German and Prussian parents who met on their way to the United States, settling eventually in McGregor, Iowa at the time of the gold rush. At five years of age Andrew contracted encephalitis nearly killing him and leaving him deaf.

As a teenager Andrew became enamored with the colored sands found at Iowa's Picture Rocks park where water derived from the Mississippi river charged with various minerals pass through limestones staining them a range of colors. 

Andrew brought home the sand and sorted the grains by size and color then began arranging them grain-by-grain inside glass bottles. Beginning with geometric shapes Andrew developed his craft, designed special tools for his art, and began creating extraordinarily detailed images with a great deal of subtlety in shading. The grains are not glued, rather, they are held in place inside the jars by pressure of tightly packed sand.

Andrew created images of George Washington on his horse, nautical scenes, flowers, local events, historical figures, flags, and geometric patterns, even words. At one point in his life Andrew worked for South Side Museum in Chicago creating designs with sand then smashing them to demonstrate there is no magic involved. But he received little recognition in his time. His genius largely unappreciated. It was not realized until later that Andrew actually invented a new art form and perfected it all by himself, and neither did Andrew himself seem to know his own art's worth. He sold his bottles for 50₵ to a few dollars. Now they are worth thousands. Many have been broken. Of the bottles that survived, not one grain has moved out of place. 

Andrew died of tuberculosis at age thirty-seven.

Odditycentral.com 

http://www.odditycentral.com/art/19th-century-artists-amazingly-detailed-sand-art-will-blow-your-mind.html

Google Images [Andrew Clemens sand art]

https://www.google.com/search?q=andrew+clemens+sand+art&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=fwO5U92uHsunyATovILgBA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1223&bih=589