NYAPRS Note: Another tragedy involving a police intervention with an individual with a mental health treatment history, this time here in our state capital, underscores the critical importance of police training and improved mental health system responses statewide and nationally. It’s important to note that an investigation has yet to be completed that points to police misconduct here.
New York’s investment in Crisis Intervention Team initiatives is receiving national attention (below).
Albany Man Dies After Police Use Taser Gun In Struggle
Family questions cop death of mentally ill loved one with heart problems
By Robert Gavin Albany Times Union April 2, 2015
City police are investigating the circumstances that led to the death of a mentally ill man who was shocked with a Taser following a confrontation with three officers after they stopped him early Thursday as he walked on an Arbor Hill street.
The family of Donald “Dontay” Ivy, 39, described him as a paranoid schizophrenic they said suffered from heart problems. His relatives waited for answers later in the day about the death of a man they said was quiet and introverted as they gathered outside their Second Street residence, several blocks from where the incident unfolded.
Police said Ivy fought with the officers, Michael Mahany, Joshua Sears and Charles Skinkle, at Lark and Second streets and led them on a brief foot chase. The officers started performing CPR on Ivy 11 minutes after the confrontation began at 12:36 a.m., according to a police spokesman.
Police leaders have not said why the officers confronted Ivy or how many times he was struck with a Taser. Ivy was pronounced dead at Albany Medical Center Hospital after he arrived in an ambulance at 1:10 a.m., a spokesman said.
Acting Police Chief Brendan Cox, who took over the department last Friday following the retirement of Chief Steven Krokoff, said an autopsy was conducted but he declined to discuss the findings, saying the medical examiner still has work to do. The results of a toxicology test that may show whether there were any drugs or alcohol in Ivy’s system could takes weeks to process.
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No weapons were found on Ivy, Cox said, and the department is examining what led up to the officers approaching Ivy. The three officers were placed on administrative leave while the internal review unfolds.
The investigation will include interviews with the officers about “what they saw, did not see,” Cox said in an interview at police headquarters. “We’re going to do a thorough investigation and we’re going to get all the answers. … No matter what the situation is, we try to defuse the situation. But a lot of times the situation dictates itself. Once something becomes physical it’s very difficult to defuse that until you get custody of that person under control.”
Ivy’s relatives spoke to the Times Union as friends stopped by their residence to express condolences.
Aneisha Johnson, Ivy’s older sister, said she is not satisfied with what she has heard thus far from police.
“They just basically told me that he was stopped and then it progressed into something else and he died,” Johnson said.
Ivy’s first cousin, Celestal Hightower, stressed she is not inclined to criticize police but wants to know what happened.
“There’s a lot of missing information right now,” she said. “We just want to wait until everything is presented to us and then maybe there will be satisfaction, maybe not. We don’t know until it is all presented. So that’s what we’re waiting for.”
Before his mental illness set in, Ivy graduated from Virginia State University in 2001. His education was paid for by Richard Yulman, who in 1988 launched his “I Have A Dream” scholarship program for students from an inner-city Albany elementary school.
Hightower said her cousin’s mental condition, which set in when he was a young adult, was “very obvious to anyone that speaks to him.” She said Ivy, who had a son, had a gentle disposition and would do whatever he was asked.
“I’m still trying to figure out how it escalated,” Hightower said. “It’s just weird to me. The whole thing just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what they did. I don’t know how it came about. I just want it to make sense.”
Cox said the incident began when the officers tried to question Ivy and a physical altercation ensued. He said the officers used a Taser at least once but it did not work and the physical struggle continued. Ivy broke free and ran away from the officers on Second Street as they chased him and continued grappling with him when they caught him further down the street. Cox said Ivy allegedly kept fighting with the officers after he was handcuffed.
“They eventually get him somewhat subdued,” Cox said. “At one point there, they recognize that he has gone into a medical emergency, that he does not appear to be breathing.”
Police took the handcuffs off Ivy, began CPR and called an ambulance, Cox said. He said members of the city Fire Department arrived and continued CPR as Ivy was transported to Albany Med, where he arrived 34 minutes after the struggle began.
Cox said he would not discuss Ivy’s medical or mental history because of the early stages of the investigation.
The death of Ivy, an African-American, comes at a time when fatal confrontations between police and civilians — namely the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island — have generated wide scrutiny, including allegations of racial profiling and calls to reform the grand jury process in which fatal encounters with police are deliberated in secret.
Cox stood by his department’s standing in the community.
“I think they know that we’ll do a thorough job on the investigation,” he said. “I think they know we’re going to be transparent with what we find out. I think they trust this police department. I think we have built that relationship up for a number of years. I think we’ve tried to make sure that everybody knows what’s going on so, that way, we don’t have those kinds of things happen.”
In a statement, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said: “I ask that everyone respect the process and await the results of the investigation. Our condolences go out to the family during this difficult time.”
It’s the third time in four years that a Capital Region man has died after being shocked by police armed with Tasers.
In 2011, Colonie officers used three Taser guns on an out-of-control weight-lifter at Gold’s Gym in Latham. The man died after the confrontation. Witnesses said 32-year-old Chad Brothers of Troy was acting bizarre in the gym before the altercation with police. Police said Brothers grabbed an officer’s Taser at one point during the prolonged struggle and shocked himself.
Last month, a Saratoga Springs grand jury cleared officers who repeatedly used Tasers on Daniel Carl Satre during a confrontation last September. Satre, 42, was shocked multiple times after authorities said he fought with officers while resisting arrest outside his residence.
In the two earlier cases, authorities blamed the deaths on heart attacks caused by the effects of so-called excited delirium syndrome, a condition in which someone falls into an extremely agitated state.
Last September, Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple took steps to terminate a sergeant, Vincent P. Igoe Jr., for allegedly improperly using a Taser. A police dashboard camera captured Igoe using his Taser on a 16-year-old who was kneeling with his hands on his head after leading officers on a high-speed chase across two counties.
http://m.timesunion.com/news/article/Man-dies-in-Albany-police-custody-6174540.php
AP: NY Budget Funds Police Training on Mentally Ill
Associated Press April 2, 2015
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Mental health advocates say New York lawmakers have added $1.5 million to the state budget for more pilot programs to train police officers in dealing with the mentally ill.
The money for the fiscal year that began Wednesday will expand the list of jurisdictions where police get the training, intended to ensure connections between police, families and people in crisis and keep them out of the criminal justice system.
The last state budget contained $400,000 for the training to help officers assess and de-escalate confrontations when called to incidents involving psychologically troubled people. It was used for training police in Auburn, Binghamton, Clarkstown, Hempstead, Newburgh, Syracuse, Utica and St. Lawrence County.
The New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services says proposed funding from both the Assembly and Senate were added.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/2/ny-budget-funds-police-training-on-the-mentally-il/