Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / 10-8: Is ADHD An Excuse For Criminal Behavior? Bodycam Released Of Kid Shooting His Teacher

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10-8: Is ADHD An Excuse For Criminal Behavior? Bodycam Released Of Kid Shooting His Teacher · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Some news stories that we have going viral, as they
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: always love to say, are trending now or things that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: people are talking about are actually old stories because now
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: we live in a world with social media, digital information,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and more information where we can put facts together. Now
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you can look back at some recent stories and put
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the pieces together and say, was that really what we
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: were told at the time? Now what's going viral now
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: is body cam footage. We'll get into this in a second.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: That was just released from Newport News, Virginia. The media
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: outlets there, actually some national media outlets too had gone
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: to court and they fought to get the body cam
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: footage unsealed successfully. So now we're seeing it now, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I'll play it for you here in a second. It's rough.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Of the Newport News, Virginia teacher, a teacher, Abby's Werner.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: She's not the subject of it. The subject of the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: body cam is a six-year-old student in her class who
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: shot her. She's okay. She was shot in the stomach
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and the arm. She recovered and all this other stuff,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and she won a civil case, blah, blah, blah. This
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: was in 2023. This week, the body cam footage has
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: been unsealed. Why is this relevant? Why are people talking
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: about it? Most of the topic around this and most
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of the question people are asking is about body cam footage.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. I mean, it is. I tell you what,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: if I was a police officer and I was in
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: a district that didn't have body cams, I would insist
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: on having it legally to protect myself. What's going on?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It has disproven so many hoaxes. It has protected the innocent.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: It has shown us what's really going on. And in
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a case like this, More of a societal kind of thing,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say. It really, really focuses the question on,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: is ADHD being used now for an excuse for really
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: bad behavior? Because this is what the mother of this
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: little monster had blamed the incident on back in 2023. Now,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: her saying that is nothing new. What's new is we
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: can look at this and say, oh, that's not, that's
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: something worse than ADHD. You can't just blame this on that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So now we can put it all together. But haven't
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: you seen it? Haven't you heard it in your personal life?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Do you hear that excuse all the time? Maybe not
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: even for criminal behavior, but just bad listening or not
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: paying attention or anything. Everybody loves to, because now we
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: have a label. I have ADHD. I can't get that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: done today. Maybe it's just lazy. I have ADHD. That's
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: why I violently lashed out. Maybe you have no emotion control.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's it. So most of the question this week
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: with this body cam footage is about body cam, and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: should everybody have it? My question is, is ADHD, because
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: of this story now, now that we have the complete
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: picture a few years later, is ADHD being blamed for
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: bad behavior in every aspect of society? You might change
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: your mind on this when you hear this. All right,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: let's get into it. Thanks for finding Wicked Radio, the
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: live stream Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. Eastern Time on
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: X and YouTube and Facebook, and the audio podcast, always uploaded,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: complete show, or episode, I should say, right after the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: live stream. Let's get to it. I'm going to give
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you some facts first before you hear the body cam footage.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: And I'm going to give you a disclaimer. Even if
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: you're just listening now, I left the language of this
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: little kid, six-year-old kid at the time, whose name we
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: still don't know, and we shouldn't. I left it raw, unedited,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and it's tough to listen to. I'll give you that
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: little warning right now. Because I went through and I
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: found the edited version, and it doesn't give you the complete,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: when it's bleeped out, it doesn't give you the complete
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: idea and picture of how out of control this little
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: kid was, maybe still is at nine years old or
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: whatever he is. I don't, I don't even know, but
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I'll give you some background in the information now. And
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I will tell you this, this was January of 2023.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: This was a huge topic at the time, a few
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: years back in talk radio world. We spent a lot
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of time talking about this because here's, here's what we
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: knew so far. You just get the scant details of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the case. Again, this is way before the body cam
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: footage was released. We didn't get that till this week.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Six-year-old kid shoots teacher, Newport News, Virginia. Teacher expected to survive.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Mom is blaming ADHD. And at the time, I'll be
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: completely honest with you, before we really even knew the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: situation and the severity of it, we're like, wow, okay, well,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: that doesn't sound exactly right. And most of the questions
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: revolved around how does a kid get a gun and
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: take it into a classroom? You got to focus on
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the parenting situation in this case, if there is any.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: How does a kid get a gun? Does he take
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: it to a classroom? Does he shoot a teacher? How
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: about the other kids? What's going on here? And okay,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: so the mother right away is blaming ADHD. Maybe, we
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: don't know, maybe it really was that bad. I think,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, you see and hear this body cam footage,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: ADHD has nothing to do with this. Maybe it's a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: small factor, but this all goes back to just horrific,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: horrific parenting. And I will tell you what, this kid
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: has no chance in life I wouldn't think, not because
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of the ADHD. That can be controlled. That can be helped.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: That can be focused. You use it as a superpower
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: because of his family situation. It just created this kid
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to be a monster. All right, so let's go back
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to it. Here are the details. It was January of 2023. Again,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: body cam release now. And local outlets had sued to
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: get this thing released from the officer, Brian Torres's three-minute
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: video cam, body cam as you're about to see, it
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: had the immediate impact of exactly what was going on here.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: The mother, Deja Taylor, is not currently in jail. I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: had to ask, too, is she still in jail? She's not,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: but she was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: for lying on a firearms form, possessing a gun while
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: using marijuana, blah, blah, blah, and all this other stuff,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: this commuted sentence and all this other crap. I asked
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the question, is that kid in jail now? As far
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: as all the research shows and every AI platform you
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: can think of, He's not in jail now. The only
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: thing I could find out about the kid was he's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: now in the custody of his grandfather. And I hope
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and pray that whoever is in charge of that kid
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: right now is able to straighten out his life. Because
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: when you hear this, you tell me you think this
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: kid has a shot in life. This isn't ADHD. Maybe
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: he was diagnosed with that. Sure. A lot of people are.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: But to use this as an excuse, I think knowing
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: what we know now with this body cam footage right here,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: you can't use that as an excuse. Come on now.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Here it was. And I'm telling you, this is rough.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I left it raw, unedited, so that you can get
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the full picture of what's going on here. Oh, nice.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I came down the hall. She had blood. Where is
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the weapon?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: It's on the floor.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: It's over there, boy. Stop. That's not.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: That's not how we speak to each other. Fuck you, bitch. Okay.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: So sorry about that. That's probably the most profanity I've
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: ever had in this particular podcast. But again, I left
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: it in there to give you the severity of the situation.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So here's what, and if you're an audio listener only,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: here's what's going on. It's the body cam footage of
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the officer. We already talked about showing what's going on.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: They're still looking for the weapon, the 9mm. They're still
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: looking for it. You hear the cop there saying, where's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the weapon now? What the hell's going on here? which
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: got the response from the little monster. It's over there, boy.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Real respectful, right? Now, what's going on? The female voice
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you hear there, I guess, is a reading teacher. She's
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: doing her best to put him in a bear hug
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and hug him, saying, calm down. We don't talk like that.
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  Speaker 1: We don't do that. Calm down. She's doing her best,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and she's just getting berated with profanity and that kind
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of behavior from this kid, who, again, I think has
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: next to zero shot to be successful in life, unless
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: a miracle happens.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: That's my take on this whole thing. Now, if you
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: go back, now, that's the body cam footage, and this
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: is what's got a lot of people saying, wow, most
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of the focus, most people in most topics on this
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: has been, body cam should be used by everybody. Like, seriously. Like,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: that's a big discussion this week. It's like ordinary citizens, everybody.
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  Speaker 1: There has been a discussion, by the way, of some
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: teachers groups saying, should all teachers have body cam after
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: revealing this? Now, that's not a new discussion, but especially
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: after this footage release, people are saying, I would want
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to protect myself for sure. That's most of the discussion.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I can't get over the ADHD excuse. The parents, the
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: mother especially, used this almost immediately. Didn't interview that's now
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: three years old and use the excuse. At the time,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I was willing to put up with it. A few years,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: because I'll never forget this story. I was willing to
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: put up with it. Now I see the body cam footage,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and I put that together with what she said, what
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the family said. I'm not buying it. I'm just not.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, let's go to that interview now. It was
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  Speaker 1: an ABC interview. It was national. Here's what Deja Taylor said.
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  Speaker 1: No personal responsibility, by the way, of course. No, that
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: we didn't raise the child to be right. We had
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: a gun that was accessible in the thing. She already,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: you know, was convicted of the weapons charge and lying
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: on the application for that. No personal responsibility. Just quick
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  Speaker 1: to blame ADHD on this. And there's your problem with
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: how you create a monster. What can you tell us
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: specifically about your son's disability?
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  Speaker 2: He has ADHD. Some are able to have it at
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: a very mild rate, but he's off the wall, doesn't
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: sit still ever.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: And why did the school decide that it was no
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: longer necessary for the family to.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Be in class? Because we ended up working with another doctor.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: He had started medication. And he was meeting his goals academically.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Had your son ever spoken, like, about hurting the teacher?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Or was there anything, like, any angst that he had
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: against her?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: No, he actually really liked her. I will say that
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: week he did come home and he was talking, you know,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: a lot about how he felt like he was being ignored.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: So he would come home. at mom i don't think
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: that she was listening to me i didn't like that
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: and then actually he ended up getting suspended the next
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: day because he was in class he was trying to
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: tell her something um and she asked him to go
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: sit back down None of that.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: I'll save you from the rest of the interview. You
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: don't really need to list the rest of it. You
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: get the gist of it. Not one bit in the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: entire thing is she's talked about responsibility. None.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: None.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure I know officially. I'm not saying that
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: ADHD is not real. Of course it is. It's a
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: real diagnosis. But when it's used as an excuse, you
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: have no shot of correcting behavior like that. I don't
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: think this kid has a shot to succeed in life
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: unless the grandparents that are actually, he's in their custody now,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: are great and are able to turn the kid's life around.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: You know why he doesn't have a shot? Because of
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: what she said right there. Well, we thought he was
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: doing fine. It's the ADHD and new medication. We're working
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: with a different doctor. He felt ignored. No responsibility. And
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: that's why. That's what led to this. That's what led
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to this thing. And by the way, this is a
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: little side note for the end of the story here.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: The teacher who wound up being okay, Abby Zwirner, she
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: was shot in the arm and the stomach by this
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: little monster because of a gun, because of the irresponsibility
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: of that mother right there. She sued the school administrator
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: or some school administrator who was involved in this in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a civil lawsuit because she had warned and other teachers
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: had warned them that this kid, this kid who apparently
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: was doing so well before the incident, according to the mom,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: had warned them that he was talking about bringing a
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: gun in. Boy, there's lack of responsibility all the way around,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: isn't there? But no, but no, everybody. Oh, it was ADHD.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, it was ADHD. That's what it was.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: No.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So you look at this case, and this is why
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you hear so many cases now that are a couple
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of years old. It's like, why are we hearing from
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: so many old... We're able to see body cam footage
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: put together with the original footage and then news clips
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and interviews, and we get a complete picture of these stories.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: It's a fascinating time where you can finally decide. It's
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a good lesson for all of us, I guess. You
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: can't judge at first, because at first, when we were
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: talking about this story, at least I remember this distinctly...
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Because it was such a bizarre, horrifying story. We'll get
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: you headlines. But we didn't have the complete picture and
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the view of information. Then quickly we started to hear
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the blame on the ADHD. But then we didn't know
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: enough to actually discount that. And you say, well, you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: from what I know about behavioral issues, yeah, you do
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: hear that a lot. I guess it can't really be
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: that bad. And we left it at that. But now
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: you see this and you put the complete picture together. Oh, no. Oh, no. Sure,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: ADHD might have been involved. Absolutely. You know. Of course,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it was diagnosed for this kid. I'm sure
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: it was. But what else is there? Well, we know
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: there was no personal responsibility or real parenting in that household.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: We know that, right? We also know that plenty of
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: excuses were made for this. We know that. We also
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: know that this warning about this kid and his violent
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: behavior was completely ignored by this particular school and that
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: school system in Newport News, Virginia back in 2023. We
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: know that as well. So you get the complete picture
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and you can say, you know, It makes me wonder
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: about all these other excuses being used, why everybody, and
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you hear it all the time now. I know I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: do in my personal life. You hear people blame ADD
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and ADHD, especially with younger millennials, all the time these days.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Ask yourself, how often do you hear it? It's become
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: almost like a conversational joke. How often do you hear that? Hey,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: why wasn't that report done? It's my ADHD. I just
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: didn't get it done. Hey, did you hear what I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: said in the meeting notes when I said, no, it's
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: my ADHD? It's not that. It's just poor listening skills,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and it's poor behavior, especially younger people. But it is
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: used as a crutch for bad behavior. You're in charge
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: of any kind of a staff, or you're in charge
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of meeting payroll for any of the time. I did
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a little chat GPT and grok search to cross-compare on
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: this thing, and I said, is ADHD being used as
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: a legal defense now more in the last five years?
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: being used more now, absolutely, as an excuse for bad behavior,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: sometimes criminal behavior, not very successful usually. I think it's
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a crutch. I think it's mostly used as a crutch.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's not real, but boy, I tell
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: you what, sometimes when you get the complete picture, that's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: why this older, big story at the time, news clips
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: at the time, now you can get the complete picture
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: because the body camera's released. It's just amazing. I'll tell
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: you what else. This is sort of off topic here,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: but I think it's important too. Not only in that interview,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and Shane, what are you feeding this kid is, I think,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: a relevant question. If you're so willing to use ADHD
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: as an excuse for that kind of behavior, and she did,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and that was the defense of this kid, and I'm
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: sure it still is, kid's life. And maybe still is.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I hope not, but maybe still is. What are you
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: feeding them? I love the people, oh, that's got nothing
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: to do with it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, what's going into their bodies? I bet you would
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: find fascinating things. I really do. I truly, truly believe that.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: How could it not be a connection? Like that doesn't
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: have an effect on behavior? Right. Actually, hanging out. Wicked
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Radio livestream, 8 a.m.-ish. Ex-YouTube, Facebook, and the replay on
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: those networks, too, and the audio podcast. Thank you so
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: much for following there on your favorite podcast platforms. Always
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: uploaded shortly after the livestream. Appreciate you. Make it a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: wicked awesome Thursday. Talk to you tomorrow.