Deadly Force & DSM Death Sentences

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the catalyst of mounting frustrations and rage regarding the excessive force police officers use with black individuals, another targeted population is emerging in the light as well. For decades it has been widely known that blacks are singled out, mistreated, mistrusted, and grossly mishandled whenever police become involved in any given situation. But sometimes the color of your skin is insignificant, even completely forgotten when one crucial factor is introduced into the equation: mental illness. For years mentally disturbed individuals have been killed at the hands of police, some violent, some not so violent, some wielding weapons, some just seeking help. But in a situation that requires, nay, begs for patience and compassion, the police find little time for anything more than pulling a trigger.

On July 6^th in Lakewood California, a man named John Berry was disturbed and required psychiatric intervention. He had previously been diagnosed with Schizophrenia, a condition which had been managed by medication, but his brother, Chris, stated he may have gone off his medication prior to or when he was terminated from his job. With his car parked on the front lawn, appearing disheveled and sleep deprived, Chris recognized his brother needed help. A federal police officer who works with psychiatric facilities, Chris immediately contacted the PET, or the Psychiatric Evaluation Team, in hopes that they would respond, evaluate his brother, and get him the care he desperately needed. However, the emergency response team allegedly reported that the sheriff’s department needed to go first and assess the situation to ensure it was safe for them to come and complete the evaluation.  Bear in mind, John never threatened himself or anyone else in the exchanges he had with others on this day.

The sheriff’s department arrived as John was attempting to leave the house. Chris walked alongside his brother’s car as he slowly rolled down the road, trying to coax him out of the driver’s seat. One officer pulled in front of John’s car and blocked him with his cruiser. Many other officers arrived and within a short time frame of approximately 5 minutes, the situation escalated out of control. With several police officers shouting orders and demands, John looked about bewildered, his hands locked on the steering wheel, petrified of the circus that suddenly enveloped him. He repeatedly asked “what did I do? What’s wrong? What did I do wrong?”

Having no luck in the few moments the officers attempted to verbally draw him from his vehicle, they began beating him with their batons. John was then tasered four times, and one officer leaned in through the passenger’s seat window and pepper-sprayed him. In the confusion of it all, somehow the car was placed in reverse, and shot backwards. Chris, who witnessed the entire incident, maintains he saw his brother with his hands gripping the steering wheel, never moving. He believes that in the struggle where the officer sprayed him, the officer may have bumped the car’s shift into reverse himself, and John’s foot may have struck the gas pedal.

What happens next is contradicted between the parties involved. The sheriff’s department stated that in reversing the vehicle, a police officer standing behind the car was pinned between that vehicle and another police cruiser, crushing his legs. Chris reported that he saw an officer bumped by the car, then fall back on his rear end, before rising quickly to his feet and walking away. Whatever occurred, the officers took this sudden movement as a threat and immediately opened fire, shooting John multiple times through the windshield of his car.

Where to begin with all the things that went wrong in this scenario? First off, I will admit some ignorance when it comes to PET policy; in the times I’ve called out the PET, they have never requested that law enforcement must respond first. Then again, I’ve never called for someone potentially having a psychotic break; most of my clients were suicidal. However, whatever policy may be, I can’t imagine why a clinician could not accompany a law enforcement officer to the scene to ensure safety and continue with the evaluation, or, in this circumstance, provide some much needed guidance to the department in handling mentally ill individuals.

Secondly, where in any handbook of worldly common sense would someone get the idea that screaming at a mentally disturbed individual is going to result in the desired outcome? In the brief training I received working in group homes with mentally ill teenagers, even we were exposed to the most basic approaches of crisis intervention and de-escalation. The rules are simple: speak slowly in a calm voice, give short clear directions, have only one person designated to speak, allowing the speaker to build rapport with that individual and avoiding overwhelming them with multiple people talking at once, and remain a short distance away from the individual so they do not feel threatened. The approach shown by these officers was pretty much the exact opposite of the aforementioned guidelines: initially, Chris had asked officers to allow him to talk to his brother, and calm him, in hopes that he might get him to cooperate, but they refused, ordering Chris to stay back. They surrounded John and multiple officers collectively barked orders at him, causing confusion and panic; they immediately encroached upon his space, getting in his face, yelling, grabbing him, beating on him, and spraying him, which may have frustrated him, clearly frightened him, and resulted in the car accelerating backwards, however it may have ended up in reverse.

Third, I’ve personally dealt with restraints of mentally ill individuals in complicated situations and surroundings, and yet for the life of me, in the short video of the incident provided by a witness, I could not comprehend why five officers could not pull this man out of his vehicle after he has been weakened by four tasers, batons, and blinded by pepper spray. John was a 31 year old man who judging by photos could not have weighed more than 180 pounds. Officers could have easily ejected him from the car by pulling his arms and legs before reaching for their weapons. And yet, no effort was ever made to grab him, to remove him, to immobilize him, it was simply to beat him, blind him, and electrocute him before shooting him to death.

Lastly, the incident of the officer supposedly getting pinned between the two vehicles. While reports are conflicting, let’s just say for the sake of argument that the officer was pinned. Chris had pointed out that John was in a newer model BMW which is adorned with the fancy Start/Stop button rather than a key ignition you have to turn. Why, if the officers were concerned about John driving off, didn’t they just push the damn button when they were leaning into the car to pepper spray him? And why was that officer standing behind a vehicle with a running engine and a mentally ill man at the wheel? Why hadn’t someone pinned the back of the car with a cruiser like they did the front of the car to avoid any movement at all? But, in spite of the sake of argument, I don’t truly believe this man, writhing with a face full of pepper-spray, backed up his car intentionally, and if he did, it was not to harm a police officer.

The officers in this situation reacted as though they were apprehending a wanted serial killer rather than a sick man who needed their assistance and protection. Not once was he afforded a kind word, a reassuring gesture, or any genuine offer of help. John never reacted violently, never swung at officers or tried to attack them; terrified, he simply clutched the steering wheel and refused to let go, and what started as a call for help ended with a call to the coroner. To watch the video, click here. Warning, the video is disturbing.

But sadly John is not the first in this situation. In Denver, a mother contacted police when her mentally ill son was having an episode. Suffering from Schizophrenia as well, Paul Castaway was waving a knife around, threatening to harm himself and at one point holding a knife to his mother’s throat. Though his mother sustained a small cut, she stated he was only trying to scare her, and she believed he never truly intended to harm her. He immediately turned the weapon on himself. His mother called the authorities and reported that she needed help with her son. She had called police on Paul many times before, and she maintains they were well informed of his history. The police arrived and found Paul with a knife to his throat. Minutes later he was dead. The police report reads that he was violent, he had “stabbed his mother in the throat” and came “dangerously close” to police with the knife, which resulted in them shooting him to death. Surveillance video of the incident shows he never approached police with the weapon and never lowered it from his own neck before being killed. Not once did a police officer with any crisis intervention training attempt to talk Paul down and de-escalate him. Again, barked orders, noncompliance, and guns.

In another tragic incident where an individual sought police help, 17 year old Kristiana Coignard entered a Texas police station with a knife, asking to speak to an officer. One officer arrived in the lobby, and spent a total of 19 seconds attempting to “de-escalate” her before lunging at her to grab the weapon from her. Prior to this, she did not make any threatening gesture to the police officer or gave any indication that she intended to harm him. They struggled off and on for approximately 3 more minutes as he held her in various restraints, pinned in the crevice of a bench seat, throwing her to the floor and jumping on top of her, multiple times appearing to have the situation under control. Finally he rose to his feet without having obtained the knife, and drew his weapon on her. She did not move, but he did not try to take the weapon from her. He held her at gun point as two other officers joined him. Kristiana climbed to her feet, agitated and distressed, and moments later rushed toward the officer who had fought with her as he shot her multiple times, killing her. Granted she posed a threat to his safety at this point, however if he had initially responded more appropriately, utilizing the alleged 40 hours of crisis intervention training he had reportedly received at his precinct, perhaps he could have safely retrieved the knife and she would still be alive, getting psychiatric treatment. Or, if he had taken the knife from her during any one of those moments during the restraint, he probably would've been okay there too. See the video here.

What is most concerning currently is police dealing with the autistic population, individuals who, if low functioning enough, can appear to be under the influence, rocking themselves back and forth, defiant, unable to process directions being given, disturbed, avoiding eye contact, flapping their hands, hitting themselves, and can act out erratically if frightened, stressed, over-stimulated, or simply confronted by someone they don’t know. They may not respond to verbal commands, they may repeat commands given instead of following them, they may recoil at being touched and may even strike the person invading their personal space. Their unusual behaviors can elicit an aggressive response from an officer, which can in turn become a violent situation for both. Some departments have taken the initiative in training their officers, but as I told my brother-in-law, an officer with the Orange County police department, each person with autism is different, each responds to directives and commands in a different way. While training can be helpful, working with autism requires an individualized approach, an exorbitant amount of patience, and understanding to learn how to effectively communicate with each of them and ultimately help them.

So police all over America are getting trigger happy in many situations that never need to become violent if they not only receive appropriate training, but utilize it. In the case of John Berry, a talk show host stated that this needed to be an example to follow, a lesson for police officers to learn from, but what she got wrong is that this is not the first, and likely will not be the last. The mentally ill are not criminals. Though one mental health trainer was confronted with comments such as “I’m a cop, not a social worker” and people mockingly calling this delicate approach to individuals with mental disorders “hug-a-thug”, the reality is these officers were vested with the power and the trust of the community to protect all who needed it, including those who need protection from themselves. If you can’t handle that, give me a badge. I’ve worked with, provided crisis intervention, de-escalated, and physically restrained aggressively autistic individuals and psychologically disturbed teens, both of whom physically assaulted me on numerous occasions, and I’ve worked in the seething cesspool of mental illness that is the Los Angeles ghetto. I have not injured or killed one person yet. Take note, officers.