Another Police Shooting in Fairfax

Here we go again. Saturday’s Washington Post reports:

A Fairfax County officer shot a Herndon area man inside his home early Friday after he brandished a pistol at police, and his wounds were life-threatening, authorities said. The 25-year-old man was thought by neighbors to be mentally ill, and police said they had obtained an emergency custody order for him, which is typically used for mentally ill people in need of treatment.

My two previous blog pieces focused on the death of David Masters, gunned down in his vehicle by Fairfax County police in November. In late January, the prosecutor, citing David’s history of mental illness, announced his office would not be charging the police officer who fired the two shots.

A Facebook group page, Praying for Ian Smith, reports that Ian - the man shot in his home - has had three surgeries and will be undergoing a fourth. He was initially given little chance of survival and his situation remains critical. According to family member Hayley Smith posting on the page:

The only problem with the story is Ian did NOT in fact have a pistol. they claimed he was holding a weapon which they later found out was just a BB gun.

An empty BB gun, she noted in a follow-up post.

It seems conflicting accounts between the police and the public are not all that rare. I had my eyes opened to this two or three years ago, when at a psychiatric conference I happened to run into someone I had met in the course of my advocacy work when I lived in New Jersey.

We got talking and decided to grab a sandwich. Then he told me an amazing story. To protect his privacy, I’m going to obscure the facts concerning his identity:

“Jim” had just graduated with an advanced degree in a prestigious and lucrative field. He was looking forward to the beginning of what promised to be a long and rewarding career. Then, celebrating at his parents’ house, something crazy happened - he went crazy. He had a psychotic episode. He picked up a knife.

His parents, alarmed, called the police. Officers entered the house. A confrontation occurred. From the other end of the room, an officer shot Jim through the neck, narrowly missing an artery.

Jim pointed to the scar tissue on his neck. Many years after the incident, he is still struggling to get his life back. Had I not been rendered so speechless by Jim’s account, I might have asked some decent follow-up questions, the kind that are supposed to come naturally to journalists such as myself. Instead, I found myself flailing, grasping for words.

At last I recalled an article I had come across in the New York Times years back. The story concerned a young man, Gidone Busch, raving delusionally with hammer in hand, fatally gunned down by police. According to the police account, the man had been attacking one of the officers.

Jim laughed ruefully. The police version, he said. He wasn’t buying it. Not after what had happened to him. According to the police version, he had attacked the officer with a knife. Then, as he lay unconscious on the floor with his life bleeding out of him, the police moved the knife to make their story convincing.

I nodded knowingly. Who are you going to believe? The police or some nutjob wielding a deadly weapon? Especially if the nutjob, due to such issues as being dead, is unable to relate his side of the story.

Okay, some context:

In nearly all stories fellow patients have related to me, the police acted professionally. They were compassionate. They were diplomatic. They knew how to handle a tricky situation. And, instead of booking the individual, they admitted that person to a psychiatric facility.

A lot of the credit goes to Major Sam Cochran of the Memphis Police. Back in 1988, in the wake of highly publicized shootings involving individuals with mental illness, Mr Cochran drew the assignment of doing something about the situation. His department teamed up with NAMI and the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee, pulled in other organizations and professionals, and together they organized a special unit called the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT).

As well as performing their standard police duties, these specially-trained officers respond to situations relating to mental illness. The police have always been first-responders to situations regarding the mentally ill, but their standard training often sets them up to fail.

A dramatic turn-around occurred soon after enough officers were trained and CIT became standard operating procedure in Memphis. Injuries went down, both for the mentally ill and police officers. So did arrests. So did complaints against the police. The police helped steer untreated individuals to psychiatric services. What was to become known as “The Memphis Model” was implemented in police departments nationwide.

At two different NAMI conferences, I went out of my way to introduce myself to Mr Cochran, shake his hand, and express my gratitude for making my world a much safer place. But in most departments, CIT is still a luxury, and in this economic climate a low priority. In 2008, the Fairfax police trained some officers in CIT, then stopped.

Now, one man is dead and another is in an uphill battle for his life. Words fail me ...

Police Relations and Personal Safety

Yesterday, I summarized a Washington Post op-ed piece by author Pete Earley (“Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness”) that was harshly critical of a Fairfax County (VA) prosecutor’s reasoning in deciding not to charge an officer for fatally shooting an unarmed man in his vehicle.

The prosecutor, in a public statement, rationalized that because the victim, David Masters, had been diagnosed with a mental illness and had been reported by his family as acting strangely earlier, then, apparently, it was okay for the officer to fire two rounds into him.

David Masters, a former Green Beret, had been suspected of stealing flowers outside a shop. Fairfax County had provided some police with Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) in 2008, but it hasn’t been offered since. CIT teaches police how to respond to situations involving individuals with mental illness.

I was not planning to do a follow-up. But that was before I read the comments to Pete’s op-ed.

“This article is a load of crap,” read one. “The cop did what he did based on this training. JOIN THE DEPARTMENT IF YOU HAVE THE STONES TO DO SO INSTEAD OF BITCHING HERE!!!”

Read another: “Monday Morning QBs. I'm pretty sure you'd all place blame on the officer if he were shot and killed.”

And another:

You should do a ride-along with your local Police Dept and learn just how dangerous it is to be a cop when stopping someone. It is really quite enlightening - much more so then watching "cops" on tv. ...it would help of citizens were better trained on how to behave properly when interacting police officers: keep your hands where they can see them and then tell them what you are going to reach for and when you are going to reach for it. No surprises for them means no surprises for the citizen.

Fortunately, the expressions of outrage far outnumbered those who would issue every officer with a license to kill:

“Since when is bizarre behavior an excuse for the police to shoot someone?” is fairly representative, as is:

A cop's primary responsibility is to protect the community that pays him to serve it, which at a minimum means not shooting people if you don't have to. If his primary responsibility was to protect himself, he would shoot everything that moves.

Before I get to my response, here is a doozy that was posted several minutes after mine:

Oh so easy to second guess at a computer screen in a nice office rather than face crucial decisions on the street. Let's have more concern for citizens on the highway and others (including the police) put in danger from a deranged person or who suffer financial and other loss because of that person. (And if you want to say "it's only money" then you cover any damages from your checkbook) If there is a "villain" in this piece it is the system that allows deranged, volatile people--mentally ill--people to wander at will. Sorry, my sympathy in this case in limited. If you disagree invite the crazies--yes, politically incorrect as it may be to call them that--to your neighborhood and street.

Finally, my response:

The commenters defending the prosecutor and police here expressly state that the author and those who agree with him have no understanding of the police and the dangers they face. That is blatantly untrue. If understanding is the issue, I would cordially invite these same individuals to learn about mental illness. It's everywhere and it's very close to you if you open your eyes to it. Moreover, no one is immune from it - not even "normal" people.

Public safety is a major issue, but heaven help your personal safety if you just happen to panic behind the wheel of a vehicle and you fail to control your fear and agitation. A uniformed man with a gun is approaching. You've lost your ability to stay calm or even follow simple instructions. In that situation, you better pray to God that the officer has had CIT training. You better pray to God that officials who represent you and your fellow citizens hold that officer accountable for his actions. You better pray to God that the public - which includes your friends and family and neighbors and colleagues - understands you. Otherwise, you - yes you, Mr Normal - are just a nutjob who pissed off a cop. Are you ready to live in that kind of world?

No doubt this won’t be my last post on the issue. Stay tuned ...

Pete Earley - Outrage in Fairfax

Pete Earley is the author of the highly-acclaimed “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.” Prior to turning his attention to mental illness, Pete, a former Washington Post investigative journalist, had achieved fame writing books on such topics as crime, criminal justice, Vegas, and spies. Then, one day, out of nowhere, ten tons of bricks dropped on his head.

Several years ago, Pete stood by helpless as his son Mike, fresh out of college, went off his Zyprexa and flipped into florid psychosis. But for doctors to treat him, first they needed his consent. Never mind that Mike’s condition had robbed his brain of all power to reason. Rules are rules. Of course, should Pete's son do something outrageous ...

A couple of days later, Mike obliged. In a highly delusional state, he broke into someone’s home and took a bubble bath. It took six Fairfax County (VA) police and a police dog to subdue him. Now a felony charge hung over Pete’s son. As Pete explained to a session I attended at the 2006 NAMI convention: “We’ve made them criminals as well as mentally ill.”

Pete’s wife urged him to do as a journalist what he could not do as a parent. Driven by his family nightmare, Pete did his own homework and turned in an eye-opening account of the degradation and horror visited upon those left to fend for themselves.

I’ve had occasion to meet up with Pete twice since then. (Pete was highly complimentary of my own book, and provided me, unsolicited, with a ringing endorsement.) He’s in high demand as a speaker at mental health conferences, and when he talks he leaves no doubt that the fire burns hot in his belly. Same with when he writes.

Yesterday’s Washington Post features an op-ed piece by Pete. According to the facts he presents:

In November, David Masters, 52, was fatally shot in his vehicle at a busy intersection after being stopped by police, who suspected him of stealing flowers outside a local business. On Jan 27, Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh announced that his office would not file charges against the unnamed police officer involved in the shooting.

In Pete Earley’s words, Morrogh ...

... offered this stunning summary of what happened: "Unfortunately, we had a mentally ill man who was behaving bizarrely ... His family indicated he was behaving under delusions, that he might feel he was under attack if approached by the police. I think that's the explanation for his actions."

Pete is quick to point out that this is pure speculation on the part of the prosecutor, who apparently felt that an after-the-fact determination that Masters must have been crazy was reason enough to fire two rounds into him. As Pete points out:

The three officers did not know that Masters had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when they confronted him. Many drivers open their jackets to retrieve their wallets when stopped by the police. The fact that a driver might be belligerent or challenge the police when confronted is not some automatic signal that he is mentally ill. What proof does Morrogh have that Masters was in the midst of a psychotic or delusional episode when he was stopped?

Pete also notes that “Morrogh's statement implies that individuals with mental illnesses cannot control their disorders and are prone to violence,” and that “even if Masters's disorder actually was a factor, there is an excellent chance that the officers who confronted him were not trained in how to determine whether someone acting ‘bizarrely’ is psychotic.”

Pete goes on to say that Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), which teaches police how to respond to situations involving individuals with mental illness, was offered to Fairfax Police in 2008, but has not been offered since.

Why are we not surprised?

(Note: Lest we rush to judgment, there is nothing in Pete's piece to suggest that the officer involved should be charged in the fatal shooting. That is obviously a separate issue. The concern here is the prosecutor's outrageous disregard for a citizen his office is charged with serving and protecting.)