Posted on 12/03/2014 8:55:50 PM PST by Altariel
Midland, TX — Rosendo Gino Rodriquez, 49, was shot dead in an altercation Monday while Midland Police were conducting a routine welfare check.
The Midland County mental health unit was conducting a regular welfare check at a home on the 2700 block of Washington Street, when things went sour. According to the Midland police, Rodriquez became “aggressive” during the welfare check.
The term aggressive is used loosely by the MPD, as they claim he acted out said “aggression” by running away from them, back into his house, and barricading himself in a room.
The Free Thought Project would like to clarify the definition of aggressive for the MPD: ready or likely to attack or confront; characterized by or resulting from aggression.
A person running in their house and locking themselves in a room is hardly an act of aggression. However, the MPD treated it as such and responded with its SWAT team, BearCat armored vehicle and bomb squad robot with a camera to gain a look inside the home, as well as a DPS helicopter.
Police claimed that after Rodriquez went inside, they may have heard gunshots. However no gun was found, nor evidence of any shots.
Family members say their father had not been on medication. Monday’s welfare check was intended to talk the man into taking his medication.
Rodriquez, whose family has been trying to get him help, was likely distraught by this heavy onslaught of police presence and became quite fearful, locking himself in his bathroom with a machete.
City spokeswoman, Sara Bustilloz said police attempted to use “many methods” including a negotiator to make contact with Rodriquez and end the situation without incident. However, the “many methods” were simply rubber bullets which proved to be ineffective, thus leading to the incompetent officers switching to real bullets.
“This is not how we want these situations to end,” Bustilloz said. “We want them to end without incident, and we do everything in our power to make sure we can do it that way first.”
Officers eventually confronted the tormented man in his bathroom, where they found Rodriquez armed with a machete. After the heavily armed men in body armor, who apparently all forgot their tasers that day, “feared for their lives,” they opened fire on the man, killing him.
According to CBS 7, per normal protocol, an external investigation into the officer-involved shooting will be completed by the Texas Rangers, and two officers involved in the altercation, who are identified as Sgt. Mitch Russell and Officer Sean Sharp, have been placed on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation.
This incident is but another tragic example of the level police incompetence when dealing with the mentally ill.
A recent report out of California showed that the overwhelming majority of police have not completed state certification that focuses on the training in dealing with mental illness, suicide behavior, and drug use; this lack of training is evident, nationwide.
Instead of compassion and patience, which should be used in dealing with mentally unstable people, police most often resort to violent escalation.
The incompetence and negligence is rife throughout all levels of law enforcement which is why these deadly actions on behalf of the MPD will likely be ruled “justified.”
It’s not like police departments don’t know that this training exists, the information is out there. We’re simply witnessing callous disregard for the the preservation of life.
In a two-part study, researchers looked at use of the crisis intervention team, or CIT, model, a 40-hour program to train police to respond to those with mental health issues. They interviewed 586 officers, 251 of whom had received CIT training, and reviewed more than 1,000 police encounters with individuals believed to have behavioral disorders.
Officers who participated in CIT training were more knowledgeable about mental health issues, treatments and de-escalation skills, according to findings published in the April issue of the journal Psychiatric Services.
What’s more, when looking at emergency responses, incidents involving officers with CIT training were more likely to result in transport to mental health services and less likely to culminate in arrest. Researchers found that officers who had participated in training were also much more likely to indicate that the highest level of force used in their emergency response was verbal engagement or negotiation.
With the increased prevalence in autism and police aggression in general, something must be done before anymore innocent lives are taken.
If that’s what happened that completely changes the equation.
CC
No no don’t you get it yet?
Respect cops or else
The new FR love fest
Get some cop love....THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT COMRADE!
don’t forget.
.Jackboot Love is forever.
If that is what happened, I think the cop did the right thing.
Why would a mentally unstable man have a machete in the first place? That’s scary enough all by itself. Eventually that guy was planning on using it in some way, and my guess is not in a good way. So he turned it against the Cops. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Glad the guy is dead, and I suspect his family is secretly relieved also. At least they know he won’t be coming after them now.
Again, yet another reason why when the shtf I will not be backing the cops. They’ll murder anyone for anything.
Freedom From War, Pub 7277 from State Dept. Explains what SWAT is all about and why cops are being militarized.
Nutshell: SWAT is internal incident forces. National military forces more and more under global commands. End goal is to have global military that no one coutries’ internal forces could defeat.
Obamacare’s death panel makes house calls. Who knew?
family says he wasn’t on any meds, yet the cops show up to force him?
he then retreats into his house to avoid being forced to take some mystery pills... at which point he’s a danger and they use deadly force
was there a reason they thought he was supposed to be on the meds?
do we no longer have a choice? take the drugs the govt says or get shot? is that the options now?
thx 0bama
He certainly should not have had it. I think many people here really under estimate a mentally ill guy who is off his meds. Some of them tend to go totally bonkers. The majority, if they can be persuaded to take their meds, are ok. If they can't, then it is not likely to end well, especially if they have a weapon. I worked 11 years with nut cases like this. It was scary enough when they were NOT armed with a weapon. In this case, it was an all around BAD situation, and it might have been one of those situations where there were not going to be any winners.
shooting to death the mentally ill and also those incapacitated by drink or drug is a pastime where I live....sadly....
It’s what they do
Similar thing happened in Santa Rosa, CA this past year. (I was at a committee meeting where the widow testified as to what happened.) She called the SR police because her husband, who had been depressed, had locked her out of the house. Long story followed, but the police ended up ruining their house by firing tear gas grenades through the siding, then drove a SWAT tank through their garage door. The husband was terrified of police, and shot himself to avoid a final confrontation. The house had to be taken down to the studs and rebuilt because the tear gas had permeated all the drywall. The widow is suing the police for the cost of rebuilding the house, but the police say it’s not their fault and won’t pay a dime.
Our fair city . . . .
I can’t believe with all that heavy hardware outside, not one box or tote had a taser in it.
The man had a machete in a bathroom. Shooting to kill was heavy handed...yes I know the typical responses...
IF the man was, in fact, mentally challenged, the police response should have been to disable. The man was only a danger when some bureaucrat came to his door and demanded he take medications he clearly did not want to take. Yes, the family was seeking help for him, whatever that means...and I /we only have the couple of news stories to tell us that: what sort of help, what sort of meds/ was he paranoid delusional or was he bi-polar? Just what was the issue? We do not really KNOW because apparently the reporters didn’t choose to tell what the problem was: only that some worker said he wouldn’t take his meds and he ran and hid from them. The “gunshot” part is easily a contrived cover-ass.
There is just a lot of smell in this story. People who are a danger need help, no doubt. But if this is how help is delivered, I wouldn’t want it either.
Cases in point many of the homeless or the homeless epidemic which began in the late 1970's was a direct result of Liberal Judges overturning involuntary committal laws where families could once call mental health facilities to come and get a family member who needed help. Families hands thanks to the courts and new state and federal laws have their hands tied and so do professionals. Thus it then became a police matter to deal with. Police didn't ask for this it was forced upon them. If by some small miracle a person finally ends up in an emergency room and the doctor says the patient needs to be hospitalized they can only be held without court order 24-72 hours in most states. Oh and an ambulance will not transport them rather most states use LEO to transport them to a mental health facility.
All the patient has to do is stay there a short few hours or days and say they do not feel like harming themselves or others and legally they must be released.
Families hands are tied. It takes court orders for involuntary committals and that take money and LAWYERS on the families part and a willing Judge.
Cops are now doing what should be mental health crisis responders jobs thanks too Bleeding Heart Liberals. The same BHL's who will Boo Hoo and cry foul about police having to use deadly force when a mental health professional may have been able to defuse it. The nice young men in the clean white coats used to handle these crisis. They were trained to take down patients and had the time to wait them out.
There are no winners in these situations. These situations should not be police matters but police were given the job by default by the courts rulings.
A lot of the suicide by cop incidents are by patients who do not belong being unmonitored and unassisted out in society. Put them in a controlled environment {such as group, assisted living, or nursing home, geared to handle their needs where meds are monitored and most are gentle as Lambs. But the very nature of many illnesses requiring this is for them not to be responsible enough nor have enough understanding to realize they must stay on their medications for theirs and others well being and safety. That is what causes these incidents to happen.
The blame is being misplaced and the laws need to be fixed where families can once again do intervention with mental health professionals and mental health professionals can once again head off these crisis before they become such.
If a person can understand this they have a thousand times better understanding of the issues than the courts, lawmakers, judges, and patients rights activist do gooders who caused this mess to start with. What has been done in the name of patients rights is cruel and immoral.
Read Post #34 and you'll understand. The mental health professionals and families hands are tied by the laws. Then you'll also understand why police are now called. Understanding the problem and agreeing with procedures are two different issues. Police thanks to the courts were given a task that should not be theirs to start with.
I had wondered if police had stopped killing citizens and dogs, essentially on whim, when the Ferguson thing came up. No. They didn’t.
“These kinds of police tactics really need to change.”
A friend is fond of saying, “No situation is so bad that calling in the “authorities” can’t make it worse.”
Read Post 34 and understand why Cops instead of Mental Health professionals are now required to respond. Paramedics can’t even respond in most states. The Cops were forced by default into a task of being skilled mental health professionals by the courts.
I hate to re-iterate rule #1, but in Texas never bring a knife to a gun fight. The guy with the knife usually loses unless he is swift of hand or foot and/or the other guy is slow or a terrible shot.
This incident was a split second decision and an unplanned commitment by both parties. Once the machete swinging starts and blood is drawn, you can’t say hold my gun while I get out my taser. Sadly, this guy was trying to kill them at the point he was killed. And don’t say they should have shot to wound him. They’re not trained to wound an assailant. Of course, not being there, it’s only my opinion, your mileage may vary.
Obviously, the events prior to this confrontation are in question and should be reviewed to prevent future confrontations from escalating to this point. But once blood is drawn, its survival of the strongest. Not very civilized, but it happens.
I wonder how Barney Fife would have handled this incident?
Have a nice day.
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