Four days later a warrant for eviction was issued, and on Oct. Cops removed the lock and entered the apartment. All told, four ESU cops and a sergeant in full battle regalia with shields and gas masks squeezed into the small space. They found her sitting in a corner holding a inch kitchen knife.
As they approached with shields and a Y-shaped device meant to hold back resisting individuals, they say she rushed at them with the knife.
She repeatedly struck the shield of one ESU cop, who fell back, knocking over another officer. A third fired a shotgun blast at her, striking her hand, then squeezed off a second blast to her torso that ultimately killed her. The cop who fired the bullets was initially charged with manslaughter but later acquitted by a Bronx judge in a non-jury trial.
Then-Manhattan U. Attorney Rudy Giuliani declined to bring federal charges, saying the prosecution of the case at the state level had been fair. For a brief time, the killing spurred talk of reform and prompted more training for more cops. But 36 years later, the city is still having the same conversations about fatal police interactions with those in crisis.
They still get angry about it. Her sister, Quinntae Bumpurs, 30, wrote a report while in high school about the death of their great-grandmother and the fallout that ensued. While residing in one Forest Houses apartment on Tinton Avenue, she says, her son, at age 4, registered a blood-lead level of seven micrograms per deciliter. The U. In her current unit, a two-bedroom flat on Trinity Avenue, she said she has struggled with a host of problems that NYCHA either took weeks to remedy or has yet to address.
A year ago, she said, the knob in her shower broke, forcing her to use a wrench to turn on the water. Home About Vision Contact. Logging In Profile cancel Sign in with Twitter Sign in with Facebook.
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Child labor never ended in America. Why was she returned to her apartment without adequate ongoing supervision or care? The mayor has acknowledged that there is a problem with community mental health care. A recent report by his wife, Chirlane McCray, identified many of the gaping holes in the system and outlined some plans for closing them. Yet thousands of profoundly disabled people continue to roam the streets and subways or idle away at home with little or no support, leaving police to deal with the crises that inevitably result.
There are alternatives. A coalition of service providers, advocates and family members has spent years calling on the city to create "crisis intervention teams" made up of medical professionals who could respond to calls for help. They are trained to deal with difficult and combative people without resorting to deadly force. They could also coordinate with a community-based case worker who would be aware of the person's condition and past interactions with authorities, allowing them to develop a plan for safely resolving the call.
While that surely would have been better, it is not the same as having a crisis intervention team as first responder to such an incident with a known mentally ill person. Even if we civilianize much of the responses to these calls, police will still have interactions with this population.
We need a change in police training and culture that goes deeper than a few hours of de-escalation preparation. The mayor was wrong when he said that current training is adequate and this was just the mistake of a single officer.
Ultimately, police are the wrong people to be responding to a person experiencing a mental health crisis.
Until we develop robust community-based mental health services, tragedies will continue to occur. On Twitter avitale.
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