Recent 911 crisis mental health calls on the coast: two dead, two get help

The Daily Journal/Samantha Weigel, 6/14/14.  "Mental health training in focus after police shootings:  Two recent incidents highlight need for more first-responder resources."

Police, Fire, Medical

Two recent police officer-involved shootings of individuals in crisis with mental illness have left some frustrated there isn’t more funding for specialty training and resources for family members who seek help. San Mateo County offers Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for first responders such as law enforcement, police dispatchers, paramedics and hospital security officers about twice a year, said Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Coffman.

....  Yanira Serrano-Garcia was shot and killed by a San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputy at the Moonridge housing complex... The shooting occurred within about 20 seconds of deputies arriving on scene, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Serrano-Garcia’s family had sought help for their daughter and often don’t have anyone to call aside from 911, said Sharon Roth, vice president of the board of directors for San Mateo County’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI.
  ....  On March 18, two Daly City police officers killed 34-year-old Errol Chang, a Pacifica man who suffered from schizophrenia.  Chang’s mother called police to their home on the 300 block of San Pedro Avenue asking for help to get her son to a hospital. She described him to police as paranoid and believing people were trying to assassinate him.

....  Coffman said CIT can make a huge difference in an officer recognizing the symptoms of mental illness, determining how to react to and how to help, Coffman said. Around 11:29 p.m. on Friday, May 16, officers responded to a 34-year-old suicidal man on the roof of his home on the 600 block of Arguello Boulevard in Pacifica who asked police to shoot him, according to the Pacifica Police Department. After eight hours of CIT officers talking with him, the man came down on his own and was detained uninjured, according to police.  Most of the time when police encounter a person in crisis, the situation ends peacefully. But even with years of specialty training, sometimes an officer is put in a situation that goes from zero to 60 in two seconds and there’s only time to react, Coffman said.  Read article.

Related -  Half Moon Bay Review/Mark Noack, 6/13/14. "Woman taken to hospital after reportedly acting strangely." "San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies say they detained a mentally unstable 18-year-old woman on Thursday night after she was reportedly talking incoherently and lying in the middle of Main Street. The incident came a little more than one week after a similar report resulted in a deputy opening fire and killing another 18-year-old woman with a mental condition."  

Note graphic:  Emergency 911 sign from Free government cell phones.

Posted by Kathy Meeh