RICHMOND, Va -- Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards confirmed an internal affairs investigation is underway into why one of his officers arrested a man in mental health crisis at a hospital and removed him from the facility despite him being ordered to treatment by the court.
As previously reported, 34-year-old Charles Byers was shot and killed by Chesterfield Police the afternoon of July 8 after he allegedly tried breaking into people's homes and refused to drop a hatchet, according to police.
But just days before that on July 6, Byers was receiving emergency treatment for mental illness at Chippenham Hospital's Tucker Pavilion under a temporary detention order.
READ MORE: Richmond Police Incident/Investigation Report
However, in the process, Byers was arrested by Richmond Police for allegedly assaulting a healthcare worker. According to the police incident report, the alleged assault involved no injuries and no weapons.
With the arrest, Byers was removed from the facility and taken to the city jail where he appeared before a Richmond magistrate who released Byers back out into the community the night of July 6. It's unclear what information the magistrate was given by police and Byers when that decision was made.
Richmond Police has declined to answer questions about the nature of the alleged offense since the incident happened nearly two weeks ago, and the department's legal affairs office withheld the officer's detailed narrative of the incident which was requested by CBS 6 through the Freedom of Information Act.
So, during a crime briefing press conference on Thursday, CBS 6 brought those questions directly to newly named Police Chief Rick Edwards.
“Is it appropriate for Richmond Police to arrest a man at a hospital who is actively in mental health crisis under a temporary detention order for an assault that involved no injuries and no weapons, and thus removing him from the psychiatric facility he was ordered to be at?” reporter Tyler Layne asked.
“I’ve asked for a review of the officer’s actions that day. I can tell you that that has happened in the past. We've always been taught that criminal trumps civil, so if we have a hospital staff member who alleges an assault and wants to discharge that person from the hospital, then we would make an arrest like we could in any other scenario. But I take your point, and once we get this review back, we’ll have some of those questions that I know you’ve been asking. It’s a very tragic situation, and what I want to do before I really speak about the merits of this particular case is to get you the details so that we don’t have to come back and clean up later, but that is something I tasked our internal affairs division to do a review on," Edwards responded.
“And was that the case with this incident? The hospital did want him discharged and wanted the police to respond?” Layne asked.
“That’s just one scenario. Once we narrow that down, I’ll confirm that for you," Edwards said.
“Do you know when that review might be completed?” Layne asked.
“In days. I would say early part of next week, we’ll have some answers for you on that. I think Chief Katz spoke about it and talked about the challenges that all of us are facing with dealing with folks in mental health crisis. We talked about it today. It’s a prolific challenge and I don’t know all the answers on it. But what we want to do with every incident we have is to try to learn from it and improve our policies and procedures. But we’ll have those answers in a week and get that back to you," Edwards said.
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Democratic Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds, who represents the Charlottesville area, said Edward's comment on being taught that criminal acts, such as an assault, trumping civil matters, such as a temporary detention order, was a "simplistic way of looking at it."
"The issue is, what happens to a person in crisis when their behavior escalates to the point where a criminal act has occurred? Well, an officer then has to use their discretion, and I guess a police department could have policies on that, but honestly, policies aren't going to be able to address every single situation," Deeds said.
He said, "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 serves as chairman of the Behavioral Health Commission and is close to issues pertaining to mental health. In 2013, his son stabbed him and died by suicide after being placed under an emergency custody order and was unable to access a psychiatric bed.
Recounting the recent high-profile death of Irvo Otieno and now Byers' death, Deeds said stories like these seem to be "repeat, cycle, rinse."
"It just happens way too frequently that people in mental health crisis end up dead, and their main crime is that they have mental illness," Deeds said.
Over the past two weeks, CBS 6 has spoken to community members and law enforcement leaders calling for systematic change in light of Byers' death. So where can lawmakers step in to address these concerns?
That part of our discussion with Sen. Deeds will air tomorrow evening on CBS 6.
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