By Mike Hellgren
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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Residents in a West Baltimore community are raising concerns about the emergency response after a man died in police custody during a mental health crisis on Tuesday, June 24.
They are questioning why an ambulance never responded.
Investigators with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office said officers restrained the man with handcuffs and leg restraints. He then became unresponsive, and about an hour later, he was taken in a police vehicle to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The officer tried to restrain him because he said he was going in and out of traffic and was in danger, according to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. More officers arrived and put the man in handcuffs and leg restraints.
“So, they transported him in their car? Why is that?” said Janet Bailey, the president of the Laburt Improvement Community Association. “We’re right here in West Baltimore. Bon Secours Hospital is right here. St. Agnes is up there. Why is it taking so long for the EMS to get to us? Why?”
Waiting for medical response
WJZ Investigates reviewed dispatch audio where the officer was asked several times if an ambulance had arrived. When there was no help on the way, officers transported the unresponsive man themselves in a police car.
“What if it was your son, your brother, your mother lying there and the EMS taking all this time to get here,” Bailey said. “It’s unacceptable.”
Police said they are “aware of the incident and our Special Investigation Response Team is investigating, alongside the Attorney General’s Office.”
“What the hell is going on right now in Baltimore City on the West side? The summer has just started. I’m mad. I’m angry,” Bailey said.
The Franklintown Road incident marked the second death involving Baltimore City police that Bailey has seen within a week.
She recalled that the man had often been at the intersection of North Franklintown Road and West Franklin Street.
“He walks back and forth in the street, shaking his head in the street, walking back and forth in the street,” Bailey said. “Many times, he’ll walk from here—Poplar Grove, Edmondson Avenue, down here—back and forth all day.”
The man’s name has yet to be released, and the public was not made aware of his death until two days after it happened.
The Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Attorney General asks anyone with information about this incident, including cell phone or private surveillance video, to contact them at (410) 576–7070 or email [email protected].
Discussion on the response to mental health issues
Baltimore’s City Council President Zeke Cohen is calling for meetings to discuss how police and other city agencies handle behavioral health crises.
“Over the past week, three of our neighbors died during or after encounters with police while experiencing apparent behavioral health crises,” Cohen said in a statement. “These tragedies are a heartbreaking reminder that far too many Baltimoreans suffer in silence.”
Cohen continued, “Today, I am calling for a hearing in the City Council’s Public Safety Committee to examine our behavioral health crisis response systems.”
“As the first city in the nation to implement trauma-informed care legislation, Baltimore must continue to lead the way on how we address these issues. The City Council has fought for years to increase funding for Baltimore Crisis Response Inc. because we know that law enforcement alone cannot be expected to solve this problem.”
“Now is the time for effective oversight to make sure all of our systems work together. We owe it to all Baltimoreans whose lives have been shattered in these moments of crisis to take action and get this right.”
Three Baltimore police-involved deaths in June
This is the third death in a little more than a week during a response by City Police.
Just days earlier, police shot and killed arabber Bilal “BJ” Abdullah in Upton after they said he pointed a gun at officers.
And the day after the Franklintown Road incident, police killed a knife-wielding 70-year-old woman, Pytorcarcha Brooks, just a few blocks away. They said she was also having a mental health crisis.
“Where is Commissioner Worley? I want to talk to him personally because he said on TV our police officers are trained for this. No, they’re not!” Bailey said.
Like Bailey, several other people in this community want accountability.
“It makes you wonder what’s going on with the system. The police, ambulance—like how? They’re all supposed to work together as one, like a team. Rest his soul,” said one woman who did not give her name.
Baltimore resident Hamza Omar told WJZ, “They didn’t get the ambulance or nothing, so definitely you’ve got to put a microscope on these people.”
The office said there is police body-worn camera video of the response. They have yet to identify the man or the officers.
On May 12th, 26-year-old Jai Marc Howell was killed in a shootout with officers.
Police released the body camera video of that incident.
Council President Zeke Cohen calls for oversight hearings
Late Friday, Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen called for hearings into how police and other city agencies handle behavioral health crises.
Here is Cohen’s full statement to WJZ:
“Over the past week, three of our neighbors died during or after encounters with police while experiencing apparent behavioral health crises. These tragedies are a heartbreaking reminder that far too many Baltimoreans suffer in silence.
Today, I am calling for a hearing in the City Council’s Public Safety Committee to examine our behavioral health crisis response systems.
As the first city in the nation to implement trauma-informed care legislation, Baltimore must continue to lead the way on how we address these issues. The City Council has fought for years to increase funding for Baltimore Crisis Response Inc. because we know that law enforcement alone cannot be expected to solve this problem.
Now is the time for effective oversight to make sure all of our systems work together. We owe it to all Baltimoreans whose lives have been shattered in these moments of crisis to take action and get this right.”
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