Chief: Officers ignored training in fatal shooting
HOUSTON — Houston police officers initially seemed to be doing everything right during their April encounter with a man in the midst of a mental health crisis. But when the man picked up a stun gun, the officers killed him with a barrage of 21 bullets.
Officers can be heard on bodycamera footage trying to deescalate the situation by keeping their distance and reassuring Nicholas Chavez, a 27yearold with a history of mental illness, that “we want to get you the medical help you need.” But Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said for the things the officers initially did right, those were invalidated when they ignored their training by charging forward rather than retreating, even though the stun gun ultimately posed no threat to them.
Law enforcement and mental health experts say Chavez’s death highlights the problems with having officers be the only ones who respond in situations where someone is having a mental crisis. The experts say officers need better training to deal with such situations but that mental health professionals also need to be part of the team that handles such incidents.
“Continuing to make law enforcement the front line is problematic as we’ve seen over and over,” said Carolyn Wolf, an attorney from Lake Success, N.Y., who specializes in mental health issues.
Acevedo said four officers involved in Chavez’s fatal shooting on April 21 were fired for using unreasonable force.
During a recent news conference and in termination letters later made public, Acevedo faulted the four officers for not following departmental rules by failing to retreat and take cover when Chavez picked up a stun gun. Acevedo said some of the officers went toward Chavez just before they opened fire on him, even though they weren’t in danger as they were out of the range of the stun gun and Chavez was hurt and incapacitated.
Those fired were identified as: Officer Patrick Rubio; Officer Luis Alvarado; Officer Omar Tapia; and Sgt. Benjamin LeBlanc.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union criticized the firings, saying the officers did everything they could to avoid killing Chavez.
“They acted the way they were trained,” said Doug Griffith, the union’s first vice president.
The officers said they opened fire on Chavez because they were in fear of serious bodily injury or death from the stun gun he grabbed, according to their termination letters.