Raising a garden hoe, 15-year-old Ryan Gainer chased a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy from his doorstep.
In a separate confrontation, a knife-wielding Aaron James, 17, slashed the hand of another San Bernardino County deputy who ostensibly was trying to stop the youth from cutting himself.
Both mentally troubled teenagers are now dead, killed in midcrisis by deputies who had no choice but to shoot, authorities say.
The deaths of Gainer and James, less than a month apart in March and April, have put a spotlight on Southern California’s programs for dispatching behavioral health workers to aid police in crises involving those struggling with mental health issues.
In the case of Gainer, deputies responding to his home in Apple Valley were unaware of his autism and that the department had previous dealings with him, authorities say.
And in James’ death, mental health workers were not called by deputies because the scene was deemed not secure “for safe engagement with the individual,” according to San Bernardino County’s Behavioral Health Department. However, James spent most of his time barricaded in a locked bathroom, shielded from first responders.
Mental health workers might have been useful in persuading James to surrender.
“If there is a weapon, law enforcement has to be there for safety concerns. But can they step back and let mental health professionals lead the conversation?” said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “(Families are) trying to get help for their loved ones, not get their loved ones killed.”
Programs aimed at de-escalation
Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties have programs that dispatch mental health workers with officers even while the threat of violence is still active. All the programs vary in how they work, but they all have the same goal — keep incidents involving the mentally ill from escalating to the point where the person hurts someone or is killed themselves.
Experts stress that each emergency is fluid, and the response can be reassessed in the field.
Linda Molina, Orange County’s director of crisis and acute care, said law enforcement can at times make matters worse.
“(But) sometimes we need that officer. We need that badge and that uniform,” Molina said.
Judy Mark, president of the statewide Disability Voices United, believes police should never be called to deal with someone having a mental health crisis. Her group trains families with an autistic member to instead create a circle of friends and mental health professionals who can be contacted in a crisis.
“You bring people in who have more empathy,” said Mark, who once trained police officers on dealing with the autistic. She now believes police are untrainable in that regard.
“Somebody waving a knife doesn’t need a gun pointed at them. (Officers) need to back off and come up with an alternative method for empowering the individual in crisis,” said Mark, whose son is autistic.
Some Southern California counties have another hole in their safety net — psychiatric teams that pair a mental health worker to ride with a law enforcement officer are not available at night or on weekends.
“This is something that should be available 24/7; crises don’t just happen during the weekday,” Wesolowski said. “We don’t just provide ambulances during business hours, so why should we do (that) for mental health crises?
“We don’t tell someone having a heart attack at 4:45 p.m. on a Friday that you have to wait until Monday morning.”
Two mental health episodes
In family photos, Ryan Gainer has a wide, infectious smile, all teeth and glee.
But on March 9, he was upset, breaking property and threatening family members at his home, according to police. A caller on the 911 line urged sheriff’s deputies to take him away.
San Bernardino County deputies had been called to the house five previous times, each ending peacefully with Gainer transported to a mental health facility.
But on this day, the responding deputies purportedly were unaware of his history.
Footage from a body-worn camera shows one of the deputies rushing toward the open front door, shouting, “Where is he?”
Gainer came running through the doorway wielding the garden tool. Two deputies fired a total of three times, hitting Gainer, who died from his wounds.
His family has filed a wrongful death claim — typically a precursor to a lawsuit — against the county.
‘Abandoned their training’
“They abandoned their training,” said the family’s attorney, DeWitt M. Lacy. “They shouted, ‘Where is he?’ As soon as they saw Ryan, they presented a gun. Law enforcement officers are trained to deal with this … approaching in a calm manner, not making threats; those are the types of things they are actually trained on.”
Asked by the Southern California News Group how much training these specific deputies received in dealing with the mentally troubled, the Sheriff’s Department would not respond, but said, generally, deputies get 40 hours of training.
Like Gainer, Aaron James of Hesperia had a documented history of mental problems.
James escaped April 5 while being transported to a mental health facility from a hospital where he was being treated for cutting himself three days before his death. James, himself a foster child, fled to a foster home in Victorville where his sister was staying and locked himself in a bathroom.
James had caused problems at the home before and someone there called deputies to collect him. The deputies tried for about 30 minutes to get James to come out of the bathroom, but when that failed, they kicked down the door for fear that he was about to hurt himself, authorities said.
James was holding a knife and a deputy was slashed. Deputies pepper sprayed James, who was pushed or fell into the bathtub, where he was shot.
At a news conference, Sheriff Shannon Dicus complained of the lack of county resources to help those struggling with mental health crises.
“Our social safety network is not working and needs to be strengthened,” Dicus said at the time. “There is no reason for law enforcement to be the ones that end up having to get involved in these crises.”
How programs work
In San Bernardino County, the behavioral health department has two programs for dispatching mental health workers with police: the Triage, Engagement and Support Teams (TEST) and the Community Outreach and Support Teams (COAST).
However, both are available only during standard business hours and not on Saturday or Sunday. The COAST program also is not available on Fridays. These arguably are crucial times when the programs may be needed most.
The TEST program is located at 26 sites throughout the county.
The COAST program offers four teams consisting of a mental health professional, a firefighter emergency medical technician, a plainclothes law enforcement officer and a therapy dog. Those teams are located in Fontana, San Bernardino, Ontario and Highland.
For nonpolice emergencies, the county operates a psychiatric crisis call center, which can be reached at 800-398-0018 or by text at 909-420-0560, as well as urgent care centers in Victorville, Yucca Valley, Fontana and San Bernardino. The call center and the urgent care centers are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In Riverside County, law enforcement and county clinical therapists are paired together through the Community Behavioral Health Assessment Teams approach, or CBAT. The teams are active in 18 of the county’s 28 cities, 40 hours a week, but not at night. The Riverside Police Department has two therapists and is able to operate beyond those hours.
The county’s mental health professionals work alongside officers to de-escalate a crisis, said Robert Youssef, spokesperson for the Riverside University Health System-Behavioral Health.
“The law enforcement officers ensure the environment is safe for all involved, while our clinicians are prepared to engage immediately and actively work to stabilize the situation,” Youssef said. “This collaborative effort is essential as it provides an immediate mental health response.”
In 2023, he said, nearly half of the 2,345 people contacted through the program did not need to be hospitalized or incarcerated.
“This approach not only prevents more severe outcomes but also helps ease the burden on health care and judicial systems, ensuring that individuals receive compassionate, appropriate care at critical moments,” Youssef said.
In one recent encounter, a Riverside County clinician helped disarmed a schizophrenic man holding a family member at knifepoint.
“Upon arrival, and with law enforcement securing the scene first, our CBAT clinician successfully engaged the individual, ultimately persuading them to put down the knife,” Youssef said. “This intervention not only prevented potential harm but also ensured the individual received the necessary care under a (mental health) hold.”
The county also has teams of mental health professionals that are available 24/7 to accompany police officers who request assistance.
Los Angeles County operates a program called MET, or Mental Evaluation Team. Each team consists of a sheriff’s deputy and a clinician from the county Department of Mental Health.
There are 34 teams embedded with the Sheriff’s Department throughout the 4,060-square-mile county, with an additional six teams dedicated to the most dangerous situations and five more that specialize in cases involving military veterans. All are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The county also operates a 24-hour triage system for the MET operation.
“Our MET teams are critically important in responding directly to emergency calls involving someone experiencing a mental health crisis and de-escalating what could be dangerous situations,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said. “They have saved lives, helped our deputies during difficult calls, and have been able to connect people who are struggling (with) the help they need.”
The county has also established a “988” hotline for nonpolice situations involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis. Available for dispatch are Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams that are made up of unarmed mental health professionals.
In Orange County, there are 17 teams that pair a county mental health professional with a law enforcement officer. The teams do not operate 24/7, but some are available at night and during weekends.
If it is a nonpolice emergency, mental health workers go out in pairs without an armed officer, Molina said. The availability of the teams depends on the city.
“It’s (all) certainly a start,” said Wesolowski, from the national alliance. “But it’s nowhere near enough.”
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post