Photo of David Jordan uploaded to his Facebook page September 8. His About Me description reads: “just tryin my best to be save thru life yes I not sure I’m a Cool Guy at all sorry.”
Details have emerged about the 20 year-old suspect who allegedly lunged at officers with knives and was killed in an officer-involved shooting last Tuesday, including that he had a severe form of autism that family members say resulted in the mental age of an eight year-old.
According to the Belmont shore-Naples Patch, which is the only news outlet to have made positive contact with the Jordan family, David Jordan was in distress the day of his death and had come home early from his special classes in the non-credit school of continuing education located on the Cypress Community College campus. Comments from other confirmed family members left on news reports of the shooting also claim that David Jordan had just switched his medication and was reacting badly.
“Mrs. Jordan,” David’s grandmother who is his legal guardian, told Patch that she called 911 last Tuesday, September 11, in order to obtain an ambulance and assistance in getting David to a hospital—something she had done previously without incident.
“I didn’t call the police. I called the ambulance because he needed immediate medical help,” Mrs. Jordan told Patch. She also says that she also informed the dispatcher that David had autism. She did not expect officers to arrive at her door with weapons drawn.
The Long Beach Police Department, however, has not made a statement regarding whether or not they were aware of David’s autism prior to arriving at the residence in the 1900 block of Harwick St., only that the caller—who was identified in a press release as David Jordan’s stepmom—stated that David was “inside the house, armed with a knife, threatening her and yelling that he wanted the police to kill him.”
The release also stated that responding officers feared the two women inside might become hostages and were attempting to remove the two females that were inside with the suspect when he approached and lunged at one of the officers with a knife, causing the officer to discharge his weapon. The suspect threw the knife at the officers and then armed himself with a second knife. When he again moved towards the officers in a threatening manner, he was shot a second time.
Another member of David Jordan’s family interviewed by Patch admitted that David had “a table knife, which I would guess was a steak knife” and that he was shot at from close range, less than seven feet. She also said that several bullets missed.
LBPD has said in statements to the press that it will not be releasing any additional information regarding the officer-involved shooting of David Jordan—including the 911 tape—due to the ongoing investigations.
“Investigative processes for officer involved shootings are quite extensive, and we are confident that at the conclusion of these investigations, we will be able to address questions surrounding this incident,” said the statement.