GEOFF BENNETT: The percentage of people diagnosed with autism has more than quadrupled over the last two decades, but explicit training for law enforcement to respond to this population and people with other developmental or intellectual disabilities is rare.

And, as Judy Woodruff reports, misunderstandings between law enforcement and people with disabilities can lead to tragic consequences.

This report is part of our series Disability Reframed.

DAREN PARSA, Father of Eric Parsa: Around this was the age when he started having more of the signs of autism, but he was - - still smiled a lot and was happy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Eric Parsa was the only child of Daren Parsa and Donna Lou.

Raised outside New Orleans, when he was about 3, Eric was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, which is included in autism spectrum disorder.

DONNA LOU, Mother of Eric Parsa: When he laughed, when he thought something was funny, I mean, it was just really contagious.

Like, you felt his joy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As Eric got older, it became clear he had serious, disabilities, including severely limited speech.

Eric's behavior also included moments when he would injure himself by head-banging or self-slapping.

DAREN PARSA: Part of it was when he had an outburst, just know when to back off, allow him time to just sort of calm down.

We saw that if he was getting cranked up, if we both kind of crowded around him, that would just like pour gas on a fire.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Daren and Donna said Eric's outbursts had improved significantly as he got older.

But in January of 2020, the Parsas were at a local laser tag place, a regular outing for the family, when Eric started getting upset.

DAREN PARSA: He said: "Go home."

So I said, "OK, OK, buddy."

And we walked out.

And then midway between the entrance and our car, he stopped, slapped himself four of five times in the face and then got aggressive with me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: While they struggled, an employee of the game room asked if they should call the police.

DONNA LOU: They asked me, and I asked Daren.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Your reaction was, you saw your husband dealing with it.

DONNA LOU: Exactly.

And I thought, well, he needs some help.

DAREN PARSA: By this point, Eric and I had kind of worked their way to the front entrance.

The location was scary.

That's why I said yes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Minutes later, a sheriff's deputy arrived.

DAREN PARSA: I turned to the deputy and I said: "My son has autism.

I don't know if maybe splitting attention triggered things."

But that's when Eric ramped up again and he started slapping me.

And then the deputy intervened.

And then Eric started open handed slapping the deputy.

And the deputy pushed Eric down to the ground.

And it ended up with the deputy sitting on Eric's backside with Eric in a prone position.

DONNA LOU: When he was laying down, I took his hand, because he was calming down already.

I said: "Eric, you're doing a good job calming down.

It's going to be OK. You doing a good job."

JUDY WOODRUFF: More deputies arrived at the scene, and several took turns on top of handcuffed Eric Parsa.

In all, he was pinned for more than nine minutes.

DONNA LOU: I said: "Eric is -- he's having trouble breathing.

He's having trouble breathing."

And... DAREN PARSA: And this is when all the officers really kind of crowded around.

Donna was saying: "Crowding around him makes him worse."

DONNA LOU: They said they -- "Let us do our job.

Let us do our business."

And I was just: "It's just going to -- it's going to escalate his behavior."

JUDY WOODRUFF: About 12 minutes after the first deputy arrived on the scene, Eric was completely unresponsive.

DAREN PARSA: His eyes were in slits.

He had some foam coming out of his mouth.

DONNA LOU: Lips were turning blue.

DAREN PARSA: And he was dead.

He was - - well, he was in cardiac arrest.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Eric Parsa was 16 years old.

The coroner ruled his death an accident.

And the Jefferson Parish sheriff said his deputies did nothing wrong.

DONNA LOU: You're haunted by that look that he had.

He was petrified.

And then there's -- you're help -- like, as parents, you're helpless.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Eric Parsa's death is not an outlier.

Between one-third and one-half of all people killed by police in the United States have disabilities, according to research that compiled and analyzed news media reports.

LEIGH ANNE MCKINGSLEY, Senior Director of Disability and Justice Initiatives, The Arc: It's probably more common than most people think.

We don't have federal data to tell us that because we're not collecting that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Leigh Anne McKingsley, a senior director at the national center for criminal justice and disability at The Arc, a disability rights organization, she points to the need for funding to collect better data and more training.

MAN: Slow the momentum.

Remember that word?

JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, no more than 20 states require law enforcement training on intellectual or developmental disabilities or related conditions.

LEIGH ANNE MCKINGSLEY: A number of states do offer different types of training, but it's very different and there's no standardization.

And there's just not really enough training out there.

ELIZABETH REYES, Los Angeles Police Department: Police work is done on behaviors.

We're not trained mental health professionals.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Detective Elizabeth Reyes leads the Los Angeles Police Department's Mental Evaluation Unit, which runs mandated training for each of the department's nearly 9,000 officers.

ELIZABETH REYES: This week you will get a ton of resources.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We sat in on part of a class with mostly veteran LAPD officers which covers mental health crises, but also includes a section disabilities like autism.

ELIZABETH REYES: This type of training opens people's eyes to different possibilities of what they're actually coming in contact with.

You may not have a mental illness.

It might be that this person has a developmental disability, and so you may need to kind of slow it down.

THOMAS ILAND, Autism Society of Los Angeles: How many of you by a show of hands know someone on the autism spectrum right now?

About half.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Thomas Iland is with the Autism Society of Los Angeles and teaches the section disabilities.

THOMAS ILAND: Looking at my title here, you will see self-advocate, and what that means is I am on the autism spectrum and I advocate for myself accordingly.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Iland goes through communication strategies and behaviors that people with autism may exhibit and how they could be misinterpreted by police.

He also talks through the type of situation that deputies encountered with Eric Parsa, a sensory outburst or a meltdown.

THOMAS ILAND: There's usually not some ill will or bad intentions behind it, but they have difficulty managing everything that's happening to them, to where there's that figurative explosion.

Sometimes, time and patience.

You need to let the meltdown happen.

So go ahead and put a fresh Post-It note on your head like this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Iland also leads the class in exercises designed to show how accommodations need to be made for people with disabilities.

THOMAS ILAND: I noticed nobody asked for more time.

I only gave you a few seconds to complete that task.

It helps the officer create some understanding.

The more we can educate the officers as to what kind of resources they have available, the more we can bring people on the autism spectrum to share their stories, that has more of an impact.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And whether mandated by the state or motivated to prevent costly legal settlements after bad outcomes, Detective Reyes says training improves policing.

ELIZABETH REYES: Especially in a large urban police department lawsuits, right, liability.

We learn.

We get better as the years go by, and getting better is a result of more training, better training.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Back in Louisiana, The Arc's Leigh McKingsley worries that possible federal funding cuts could reverse momentum on law enforcement training.

LEIGH ANNE MCKINGSLEY: It could have a huge impact.

For example, at The Arc's National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability, our funding has mainly come from federal government.

JUDY WOODRUFF: She also worries that the Trump administration's focus on ending diversity, equity and inclusion could also affect organizations like The Arc.

LEIGH ANNE MCKINGSLEY: The Arc started almost 75 years ago by parents whose children weren't allowed to go to school because of a disability.

So inclusion means everything.

DAREN PARSA: Eric would have liked this, yes.

DONNA LOU: I think so too.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Daren Parsa and Donna Lou are doing what they can to keep Eric's memory alive.

The couple settled a civil suit with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in 2023, which included a requirement that the department have an outside expert develop a curriculum to train deputies on how to deal with people with autism.

As you look back on it, what do you think that the deputies should have done differently?

DONNA LOU: A big one, I think, is communication.

We were there.

Like, Eric couldn't have the words to say, "I can't breathe."

He just didn't have the words to say that.

DAREN PARSA: Putting myself in their shoes, they certainly didn't want Eric to die that day.

And I could understand where they're coming from, how horrifically hard that job is.

But at the same token, Eric shouldn't die that day.

So there's got to be a better way to handle this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A better way for people like Eric Parsa and the many people with intellectual or developmental disabilities who may come into contact with police.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Judy Woodruff in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana.