CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va -- As community members and law enforcement leaders have called for changes to the mental health system in light of a recent deadly police shooting in Chesterfield County, one lawmaker said police departments also must improve their roles in responding to those in a mental health crisis.
On July 8, Chesterfield Police shot and killed 34-year-old Charles Byers.
Byers was said to be in 'crisis' as he allegedly tried breaking into peoples' homes and refused to drop a hatchet when confronted by officers, according to police.
"When you have someone who's in mental health crisis, walking around a public street flailing a hatchet, that's a failed system," said Chesterfield Police Chief Jeffrey Katz in a previous interview, speaking about a lack of mental health resources, funding, and capacity to care for people who are mentally ill. "That's an individual who's in crisis, but that is a byproduct or a manifestation of a failed system."
Just days before the shooting, Byers was at a psychiatric unit of Chippenham Hospital under a temporary detention order (TDO) for emergency mental health treatment.
Under a TDO, an individual should be held at a psychiatric facility for up to 72 hours or until the person is evaluated during a commitment hearing.
The court has no record of a commitment hearing ever occurring.
But after only being in the facility for about three hours, according to the timestamps on Byers' TDO, he was arrested and removed from the hospital by Richmond Police for an alleged assault against a healthcare worker.
While Richmond Police and the hospital have declined to release any information about the nature of the offense, a police incident report showed the alleged assault involved no injuries and no weapons.
An internal review, requested by the Richmond Police Chief, is now underway into the actions of the arresting officer.
Byers then appeared before a Richmond magistrate who released Byers back out into the community the night of July 6, less than 48 hours before his death.
“The reality is we have to address this individual situation. We need to figure out why this individual in crisis died," State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D - Charlottesville) said.
Deeds serves as the chairman of the Behavioral Health Commission and has been previously outspoken about his own experiences with the mental health system.
In 2013, his son died by suicide and attacked him while in crisis. His son was under an emergency custody order at the time but was unable to access an available psychiatric bed.
The senator said Chief Katz is "correct" about the shortfalls of the mental health system, but this case appears to be much more complex than that.
“Sometimes it's ‘circle the wagons' time with the police departments whenever there's a police-involved shooting that results in a death," Deeds said. "You can say certainly that the failures of our system contributed to that situation, but that doesn't explain fully the death or the tragedy for this family."
Deeds said the law is clear about how TDOs are supposed to play out, but he added police have "tremendous discretion" when a subject commits a criminal act in the process.
He said if no one is hurt from that offense, such as in Byers' case, the focus should be on restoring the person to competence.
“If a person in crisis was taken out of a psychiatric facility and put into a situation where it was only going to cause more stress, and only going to worsen the crisis, it seems to me that a lot of questions have to be asked about that behavior," Deeds said.
As to where he sees room for potential policy changes, Deeds said that could look like more crisis intervention training for police, although he acknowledged that the deputies who were charged with murder in the high-profile death of Irvo Otieno were trained in crisis intervention, which he called "frustrating."
He added that local law enforcement departments could create sharper policies addressing officer interactions with subjects under mental health orders.
"What this argues for is more intense scrutiny on the law, more intense scrutiny on the behavior of officers. Maybe we need to figure out how to define it better," Deeds said.
But he added, “It's very difficult to write a law that's going to meet the circumstances of every person's crisis or every person's illness or the circumstances that involve every person's arrest, or their encounter with a law enforcement officer.”
In a previous interview with Chief Katz, he said Chesterfield Police had just recently implemented the Marcus Alert system which allows police to coordinate responses with mental health professionals to certain calls.
As to how effective he believed the program would be, Katz said, "We'll have to wait and see."
Deeds said the legislature could also reconsider whether the bail checklist contains the appropriate information. Currently, the checklist's questions pertain to whether the defendant is on parole or on probation and whether that person has a criminal background.
There is no specific questioning on the checklist pertaining to whether the defendant is under a temporary detention order or emergency custody order, however, Deeds said police officers typically would provide that information to a magistrate anyway.
"How do you know whether to check that off or not if the police officer does not provide that information," Deeds said.
It's still unclear what information was given to the magistrate who released Byers on his own recognizance.
"I don't know whether it was... just a bad decision or whether they needed more information," Deeds said.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
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