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Custody Death of Man With Down Syndrome Leads to MD Police Training Program

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A Maryland commission formed in response to the death in custody of a man with Down syndrome is working on a mandatory training regimen for police officers statewide.

Panel Chairman Timothy Shriver says some of the training must be done by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Committee members are meeting Thursday in Sykesville to begin shaping a curriculum that they expect the state police training commission to adopt by year-end.

The training was mandated by this year's General Assembly. It stems from the death of 26-year-old Robert Ethan Saylor.

Saylor suffocated as three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, moonlighting as mall security officers, tried to forcibly remove him from a Frederick movie theater in January 2013. The death was ruled a homicide but a grand jury declined to indict.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.