Mentally Ill Man Refuses to Take Medication So SWAT Shows Up and Kills Him

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.

Many but by no means all conditions labeled as mental illness are "Symptoms" stemming from a yet to be detected or misdiagnosed physical illness. That is especially true in anxiety disorders. There is Phobic Anxiety which can be brought on by traumatic experiences. It can also if a fear of heights be a symptom of Vestibular Dysfunction. The brain is constantly compensating, correcting, and detecting as well as self preservation looking for dangers and expecting appropriate responses. Meaning simply if it sees danger that you may not even understand or be aware of it can trigger anxiety because you did not give a proper response. Climbing a ladder would be a good example. Depression can be cause by infections in ones body such as a simple low grade UTI.

Medicine has become very specialized which has been both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is treatments are much better. The curse is doctors are now missing simple illnesses that end up being refered to mental health.

The older cradle to grave doctor was a General Practitioner. They did surgery, delivered babies, did geriatrics, knew a considerable bit about mental illness as well. Few things got by them. Our old family doctor that delivered me and my sister in the 1950's was our doctor into out late 20's until he retired. He told my parents when I was born I had feet issues. An older Optometrist when I was seven discovered I only had one eye functional vision. Not one eye doctor has picked up on it since not even in my two armed forces enlistment physicals. I have to tell them. Today the closest doctor to be a GP is an Internal Medicine doctor.

I remember the last day I was able to work. The events of it eventually helped me to put the pieces together. I had been having problems related to sounds, vision, and my concentration and had already seen several doctors.

I was a maintenance mechanic. I worked in a large nursing home/retirement home/ assisted living/ and retirement community that spanned fifty acres. I had evening shift and worked alone.

I got a trouble call to go to a retirement home apartment to see about a noise. I went up there and saw a resident I knew walking in the hallway and she was the one who had called. I asked her what was wrong and she was nearly in tears saying please come in here the noise in my room is horrible.

I walked in and it sounded normal o me. So I said Ok take me to the noise so I can see what it is. She took me to the through the wall heat/HVAC unit. I turned it off and she was crying saying of thank you. I went to find the nurse on duty there and told her. She said yeah it's odd she came back today from the hospital like that.

I walked back to the main building to my shop to eat supper. I was leaning back in a chair up against a double door and someone on the other side yelled at someone coming out of the kitchen. You know the old cartoon where the dog walks up behind a cat and barks and the cat goes to the ceiling? That was me. Almost immediately I was losing my ability to concentrate and even except in limited responses communicate.

I called in a relief so I could clock out {we had boilers I could not just leave}, called my dad for a ride home as I was not in any shape to drive myself, and never went back. They diagnosed me as having General Anxiety Disorder. MRI, CT, etc was clear. Neurologist was stumped that meant Shrink was next. They did Anxiety antidepressant protocol and it got much worse.

About two years later I found a book in a second hand store called Phobia Free. I looked at it as I'm skeptical of quack cures and feel good books etc. This guy was a Neurologist/psychiatrist and by happenstance had directly linked Vestibular Disorders to triggering Anxiety Disorders aka panic attacks as well as ADD ADHD type symptoms known today as C.A.P.D.. I bought it, read it, and it changed the course of my treatment after I stood my ground with the Shrinks.

Now what was my point about the older retirement home resident? The poor soul likely had a good old fashioned Inner Ear Infection that GP's knew would literally drive you nuts and the specialist at the hospital missed it. Yes an Inner Ear Infection does make sounds seem much louder. I've always wondered was she taken to a doctor and antidepressants used to treat her as well because she had anxiety? Doctors today due to time constraints caused by HMO's etc don't have the time to do detective work.

Things happen that's just life. The Lord is there in the good and the bad times. We do have plenty of good times too.

The medications can turn on a person fast. All it takes is for example a patient taking an antidepressant to get a cold and take OTC NyQuil. That is one of the most common triggers of Serotonin Syndrome. I also believe strongly they should not be given to teens except when all other means including One on One Therapy has failed and other causes ruled out. I believe either unintentionally some of the school shooters etc have had this reaction or figured out how to "Trip" taking antidepressants. The unintentional ones they knew not what they did or caused. It really can be more potent than LSD.

Doctors prescribe the deemed mainly by media and social pressures "Safer" antidepressants and cringe in horror at the extremely media over-hyped boogieman class of meds like Valium, Xanax, Librium, etc which have a bloodstream life of only hours.

A doctor can give a patient a Benzo and have the person sit in the waiting room for about 30-60 minutes and he's going to see pretty much how the person reacts to the medication. antidepressants take up to a month to reach full therapeutic levels in the bloodstream and adverse reaction can happen at any point in between.

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