She called 911 to get help for mentally ill son. Police shot him dead.

[Tanuki]

https://amp.tennessean.com/amp/4958840001?__twitter_impression=true

?crop=6299,4725,x0,y0&quality=50&width=640

..."Her oldest son, Jacob, was in crisis. Schizophrenia had hijacked his brilliant mind. The "gentle giant" of the family was overcome with paranoia and false beliefs. “He lost the ability to navigate his own mind,” Griffin said in an interview with The Tennessean.

Earlier in the day, he sent her a series of text messages threatening to kill her and others. He had a gun, and sent her pictures of ammunition. "I was very concerned that he might hurt other people," Griffin said. "I wanted to prevent that.”

So she turned to the police. When she called 911 2:30 p.m., she knew the risks, reiterating to the dispatcher that she didn't want the officers to kill her son. She said she was hopeful officers could get Jacob the medication and treatment he desperately needed to function and, perhaps, thrive.

Instead, her worst fears came true. Jacob Alexander Griffin died Saturday night after a long and tense standoff with the Nashville police department's SWAT team. Police spokesman Don Aaron said an officer shot the 23-year-old after he fired his gun twice.

No officer was hurt. Jacob was pronounced dead soon afterward at Vanderbilt University Medical Center."

[secondwind]

1. What a tragedy...

[PTWB]

2. No blame for the police in this one.

Stories like this highlight the failings of our country’s mental healthcare system—not failings of the police.

Our society failed this young man long before his mother ever called the police.

[Tanuki]

3. It also highlights the tragic consequences of unfettered civilian access to weapons.

If he had not been armed with a gun and ammunition, he would probably have been apprehended with minimal difficulty and hopefully taken to a treatment facility where he could have received the help he needed

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

5. 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽 THIS!!

[KPN]

8. Bingo!!!

[appalachiablue]

21. +1

[uponit7771]

23. Amen !!

[Bettie]

9. Someone says this about literally every shooting

There is always an excuse for cops killing someone.

[PTWB]

18. Someone might, but I don't.

An armed person experiencing a mental breakdown who shoots at police, and is subsequently shot and killed by police, is a tragedy because he was armed and had not received proper mental health care. That is the tragedy.

[RainCaster]

4. Very few police receive any mental health training

That is the real issue here. They can't recognize a problem they don't know about.

[LisaL]

7. How is mental health training going to help if the guy is firing a gun at the police?

That guy was a diagnosed schizophrenic at 18 years old. Yet he still had a gun.

[RainCaster]

19. It might help in this case, probably not though

However, in many cases, it would make a big difference.

[LisaL]

6. Paranoid schizophrenic shouldn't have had access to a gun.

NT

[KPN]

10. Exactly.

[nolabear]

11. This is an almost impossible situation. I feel for them all.

Schizophrenia is only treatable by medication. Reason, cajoling, other forms of getting to someone who is armed would only work by chance. The only recourse I might see is cutting power and water to the house and waiting, trying very hard to convince him to give up the weapon, but you cannot predict what’s there or what will happen. Tear gas, maybe, but suicide or dashing out only to be killed are strong possibilities.

He should never have had access to a gun. But he did. And that terrible disease cost him and everyone else dearly. 😢

[hunter]

17. He was a crazy homeless guy living in a camp.

I'm sure he freaked out when the SWAT team showed up, as anyone might.

[LisaL]

13. He presumably was a gentle giant before his diagnosis.

Obviously once disease struck, he was no longer a gentle giant. Mom likely still sees him as a child he once was.

[LiberatedUSA]

14. Just another example...

...of why you don’t call the police on mentally ill family members. They will shoot them.

[LisaL]

15. Her son was threatening to kill her and others.

He had a gun. Should she have waited for that?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

22. Cops treat you like shit

If you have mental illness. The shooting was tragic. But in other situations cops mistreat humiliate and
Basically treat you like shit if you have mental illness. Sometimes people with mental illness get shot when they are non violent.

Get counselors and the ambulance to take mentally ill people to the hospital.

Counselors and
EMT's can de escalate the situation better than an untrained cop taught to see everything as a threat can.

[hunter]

16. In more rational cultures the son and the police simply wouldn't have had guns.

Furthermore the son would probably be in some sort of government supported supervised living situation.

I always think long and hard before I call the police about anything. I've seen them shoot people I wouldn't have shot. I've seen them make bad situations worse.

My own mind went a little sideways in adolescence. I take meds for that. Modern meds are pretty good, better than they were.

It took me nine years to graduate from college, I was "asked" to take time off from college twice, the implied threat being permanent expulsion. The local police knew me and mostly regarded me as an amusing diversion from their usually sordid duties. I was generally affable, but not always. I was also white.

Maybe it's just good luck that I was obsessed with computers and running, not guns.

U.S.A. gun culture is toxic.

Like most sane people I don't let anyone I'd care to shoot live in my head.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. A better way is possible.