Pacifica Tribune/Obituaries, 3/25/14. "Errol Chang, March 18, 2014.
Errol Chang, 34, of Pacifica, died March 18, 2014. He grew up in Pacifica and enjoyed working on cars, playing video games with his friends and was an animal lover who loved his dog, Peanut. Errol struggled with mental illness, but was a loving and caring person to his family and friends.
Errol is survived by his father, Thomas Chang; mother, Christine Goias; stepfather, John Goias; brother, Matthew Chang; sister-in-law, Karna Kurata; grandmother, Violet Chang; and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
Memorial services will be held at noon, April 12, at Duggan's Serra Mortuary, 500 Westlake Ave., Daly City."
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| Errol Chang |
On Tuesday March 18th, 2014 the Pacifica police were called to the house that Errol shared with his father. Not because Errol was a threat to others but because Errols mental state was a threat to himself. The Pacifica police showed up shortly after and when they could not get Errol to comply they called in the Daly City Swat Team . Within 6 hours Errol was shot and killed by the Daly City Swat Team while his mother, father and brother stood outside the home anticipating a peaceful resolve.
Here are a few of the questions we would like answered. Was any specialist who had been trained to communicate with someone diagnosed with schizophrenia ever called or brought in during this 6 hour period? Were his medical records ever looked at during this time? Were any doctors that may have treated Errol in the past ever contacted? Why didnt the police allow any friends or family to speak to Errol during the standoff?
The 6 hours played out more like a training exercise then it did a rescue operation. They hurled demands at him to give himself up, "come out Errol, come out right now, Errol come out" and they fired flash grenades into the home which produce a very loud bang and can give off the impression that one is under gunfire. Is this how you get a paranoid schizophrenic to trust you? One who already thinks people are after him? One who up until the police were called posed a threat to no one but himself? Is pointing automatic weapons at a mentally disabled individual while his unarmed hands are stretched far out his front window and hurling demands at him while firing flash bombs into his home the proper procedure? Because if it is then we desperately need some change to the policies within our law enforcement.
This gofundme account is being setup to help the Chang family bury their son and brother. For a memorial service to celebrate Errols life. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful in getting Errol the help that he needed so maybe we can help them in giving him the send off that he deserves. And if anything, to offer them a little bit of peace in this trying time. Anything helps. Thank you in advance."
"The mentally ill frighten and embarrass us. And so we marginalize the people who most need our acceptance. What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation." ~ Glenn Close
Posted by Kathy Meeh
11 comments:
I don't want to sound cold but this goes on everyday with mentally ill people. These questions could of been asked decades ago. If anyone has ever worked for the public in a big city you see this all day long. People with mental illness and/or schizophrenia are very dangerous. I, myself, have been physically attacked by a person who suffers from schizophrenia with a broken beer bottle in San Francisco as a bank teller. Police were called in to rescue me. I had never been so scared in my life. He tried to slash my face with the broken bottle. He was a 6'7" man. I am not taking sides but just pointing out that this is something that is a daily occurrence in SF. In Pacifica, we are pretty closed off from many uncomfortable subjects. Peace Officers know how dangerous mentally ill people are. Some, most people do not realize this.
843 And now we know how dangerous police officers are to the mentally ill.
843 Glad you survived. How about your attacker?
This is very sad. Schizophrenia is a terrible disorder. All people with it aren't dangerous, but many are. I grew up with a kid who had schizophrenia. He tried to beat our heads in with a baseball bat because he thought we were out to get him and he also tried to kill his mother and sister. I believe the Sandy Hook, Aurora and Tucson mass shooters all had schizophrenia. This poor man had an axe and he stabbed an officer. Police were told by his parents that there was a gun in the house and he may know where it is. I think people should wait to see what the facts are before jumping to conclusions and accusing police of any wrong doing.
Hutch, you never cease to amaze. You try to demonize this man and thus justify how this was handled by linking him to mass murderers who armed themselves and went out to kill people. Oh yeah and let's wait for the facts. Is that beer bottle story yours, too? Any more stories you want to share about schizophrenics you've known and survived?
We've already got some pretty troubling facts. Errol Chang didn't go anywhere. And he didn't hurt anyone until he was cornered by SWAT after a 6 hour siege of his home by armed and aggressive police who, by all accounts, knew he was mentally ill. And Errol Chang is dead. That outcome should have surprised no one. More skilled care and concern would have been given a sick animal. If this was done by the book, then that book needs to be rewritten. People's lives depend on it.
1133, now you're demonizing Hutch. Untreated mental conditions, including schizophrenia, may not be so simplistic.
In this case, however, its possible sending-in dinner (that Errol might not have thought was poison), soft music, and calming words may have brought a better outcome.
Most of us were not there, and we are just trying to understand what happened, what went wrong, and what we would expect in a community from future police strategy, intervention and action.
Kathy, I agree wholeheartedly that you and I both want to know what happened and what went wrong and what the community might expect next time the police confront a mentally ill person. Beyond that, that little devil is all yours.
140, ha, devil to you, angel to me.
Just wonder Anonymous, are you will to pay for a “Mentally Ill” police task force and all the highly specialized training they would require? Just an FYI anything having to do with folks suffering from Mental Illness of any sort is so twisted, it’s unbelievable. Family and friends who might be caring for a person in that situation can get no help unless the sufferer agrees to accept it! So you can have a totally distorted person making life completely miserable for themselves and those around them and their family/ caregivers can do nothing to get them help unless they threaten or execute bodily harm to themselves or others. I know someone with a family member suffering from Bi-Polar Disorder who routinely, starting at the age of 16 had to take the sick family member to the hospital in the middle of the night after finding her wondering around the streets in pajamas and then had to spend 8-12 hours in admitting coaxing the person into signing themselves in for treatment. This went on several times a year for 50 years. To add insult to injury, if the family or caregiver finally manages to get the person in for help, then they cannot get any information on how the person is doing until the person agrees to it. Yes, our system with regards to mental health care is so broken. What happened to Mr Chang is a shame but it’s even more shameful that people like him and their caregivers cannot get really helpful support and services.
Sharon, I'd say we are already paying billions to arm and train police officers. What are we buying? It's the rare person who doesn't count a mentally ill person among family or friends. Police confrontations are not rare. If we want the use of lethal force in these situations to be a last resort, and I believe we all do, then other tools, and people genuinely skilled in their use, must be part of the protocol. Were those tools available here?
I live right above 364 San Pedro and saw the police standoff March 18. I wrote a long comment mostly about the gestapo traffic checkpoints and the gestapo attitude of the Pacifica cops. But your anti robot letters and number thing did not work. I must have typed them 12 times and it never worked. So I gave up.
Here are the points I made
The illegal checkpoints on PCH
Insolent, nasty attitude doing their best to start a confrontation so as to be able to arrest a tax payer for no reason just so they can justify their existence.
City get rid of 3/4 of the cops and create a $10.00 per hour dog patrol because unleashed dogs seem to be the only crime.
Tale of how I was almost arrested on the beach last year because of an unleashed dog. It was not my dog and I do not even own a dog. I kept telling the stupid stormtrooper that. That is all I said. But he kept threatening to arrest me for "obstruction of an officer" But I do not even own a dog.
Story of how the night before, March 17th about 10/pm at their ILLEGAL CHECKPOINT at taco bell a driver was stopped and arrested for drunk driving. He passed the blood test. A woman passenger was yanked out of the car, thrown on the ground, cuffed, stomped on and both were arrested for drunkenness. The woman was refused a drunk test. She spent the night in the drunk tank and was refused a phone call. There was a pay phone but it did not work. Both charges have been dismissed.
I also recommended that if the big bad Pacifica police want to practice law enforcement, they transfer to Detroit, Oakland, Richmond, Newark NJ where they can practice their gestapo tactics on real big bad felons and deal with massive protests by Al Sharpton etc when they arrest someone.
I filed complaints with both State of CA and US Justice depts for civil rights violation by killing Peter Chang.
I used to drive the kids to school and every morning there was a gestapo lurking behind the trees so as to give out bogus traffic tickets to people driving the kids to school. Is that why the town does not have school buses? To make it easier for the gestapo to harass people driving the kids to school
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