VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 29-year-old man being held at a Florida hospital for mental health issues was shot dead after he took a pair of scissors and threatened to stab police officers, officials said.
The man was one of several people who were being held at the hospital despite risking harm to themselves or others because there were not enough beds at the local mental health facility, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said.
“This is a terrible tragedy, not just for our county, but for our country. We are facing a psychological crisis.”
The man’s family took him to the emergency room at the Cleveland Indian River Clinic in Vero Beach on Friday after he tried to injure himself, Flowers said during a news conference Sunday.
“He took a pair of scissors, big scissors, and ran around the hospital,” the officer said. The officers started chasing him and he raised the scissors over his head.
“At that point, our agents started to back off,” Flowers said. “Again a small, narrow corridor, carrying, all sorts of things were there. They draw their guns and two of the officers fire and kill this man.”
The man was being held under Florida’s mental health law, known as the Baker Act, which allows authorities to hold someone in a mental health facility for up to 72 hours if they pose a threat to themselves or someone else.
“The fact that they’ve been seeing people there for Baker Act suicide incidents, that they’ve had several Baker Act patients waiting to be transferred to the (psychiatric) facility because there aren’t enough beds, and the fact “That this gentleman waited for a day and a half, it shows what kind of mental health crisis we are in right now,” Flowers said.
Officers have been placed on leave while the shooting is investigated.
Source: Associated Press