Mental health call ends in fatal shooting

A Harris County sheriff ’s deputy on Wednesday shot and killed a man who approached him with a knife during a reported mental health crisis, authorities said.

The man’s sister identified him to KTRK-TV as Marcelo Garcia, a 46-year-old father of four with a history of mental illness, including schizophrenia and bipolar, she said. Multiple attempts by the Chronicle to reach Garcia's family were unsuccessful.

Garcia’s wife had called police just after midnight from a home in the 5900 block of Sunflower Prairie Court, reporting that her husband was in crisis.

While the deputy responded to the scene, dispatchers requested a sheriff ’s office mental health unit, which includes a deputy and a social worker. HCSO mental health units — implemented in 2011 as part of the Crisis Intervention Response Team program — are trained to deescalate the most severe mental health crisis calls.

However, in the wee hours of Wednesday, only one mental health unit was covering the county, said Harris County Sheriff ’s Office Assistant Chief Mike Lee. That unit was tied up on a call in Katy, he said.

“This is a very tragic event,” Lee said. “Sending armed police to a mental health crisis call is not the ideal situation. Unfortunately, sometimes these issues fall through the cracks, because the person can’t receive the mental health care that’s needed.”

The lone responding deputy arrived on the scene and met Garcia at the front door. Armed with a roughly 5-inch blade, Garcia “aggressively approached” the deputy, despite multiple orders to drop the weapon, Lee said.

The deputy retreated away from the home and, at one point, deployed his Taser. It was “ineffective,” Lee said. The sheriff ’s office is investigating whether the Taser projectile ever struck the man, said

spokesman Jason Spencer.

The deputy retreated about 50 yards before firing his weapon multiple times. The man was pronounced dead on the scene.

Lee said deputies previously responded to a number of mental health calls at the home, some of which involved Garcia. The most recent mental health call was last Thursday, when a woman reported a “husband in crisis,” he said.

Garcia’s sister, Jessica Garza, told KTRK-TV that earlier 911 calls often prompted a response from deputies trained to handle his condition. The deputies would often de-escalate the situation, she said. It’s unclear whether those deputies were part of a mental health unit.

“I'm not going to deny that it's scary,” Garza said of her brother’s earlier mental health crises. “But you don't kill him."

The deputy who shot the man was hired by the sheriff ’s office in June 2018. He has been on the street as a patrol officer since August 2020, officials said.

He will be placed on desk duty — a common practice — while the sheriff ’s office Internal Affairs Division and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office investigate

There are nine total mental health units with the sheriff’s office. Those HCSO teams handled 5,170 mental health calls in 2020, diverting 266 suspects away from jail, according to an annual report from the agency. Of those calls, five ended in an arrest.

Meanwhile, the Houston Police Department has an additional 12 mental health units under the same program.