Episode 2: "Suck It Up, Buttercup"

Aftereffect | Jun 22, 2018

The shooting left Arnaldo severely traumatized, unable to remain in the group home where Charles Kinsey had taken care of him. Shortly after, Arnaldo was involuntarily committed to a hospital psych ward, where a typical stay of just a few days stretched into well over a month as the state of Florida struggled to find a new home for him.

Eventually, Arnaldo finds himself in a new facility with a well-documented track record of abuse and neglect. It's Halloween when we first meet Arnaldo face to face. Ironically, after everything he's endured, the staff have dressed him in a police costume.

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Aftereffect

In the summer of 2016, a police shooting upended the life of Arnaldo Rios Soto, a 26-year old, non-speaking, autistic man. Aftereffect tells Arnaldo’s story — a hidden world of psych wards, physical abuse and chemical restraints — and asks the question: What made Arnaldo’s life go so wrong?

WNYC’s health coverage and Aftereffect is supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Jane and Gerald Katcher and the Katcher Family Foundation, Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Thanks also to the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism.

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Episode 2: "Suck It Up, Buttercup"

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