(June 16, 2014) Responding to a mother’s 911 call for medical help for her son, the police instead shot and killed Jason Harrison, a 38-year old who suffered from severe mental illness. Harrison’s mother had asked law enforcement for help getting her son to a hospital for treatment (“2 Dallas police officers on leave after mentally ill man shot, killed,” June 15).
Harrison reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder, paranoia and schizophrenia. At the time of the shooting, he was carrying a screwdriver which he refused to drop. “In my eyes, it looked like the police overreacted,” said Harrison’s older brother, David.
Harrison’s family was unable to get him into treatment because he never appeared to be a danger to himself or anyone else, they said. “I just really wish that he could have got the help that we had really been trying to get for him so that maybe it could have had a different outcome,” Harrison’s brother said. “We'll never know.”
Deaths like these are unsurprising tragedies. Over the last half century, the responsibility of law enforcement officers for seriously mentally ill people has increased sharply. In fact, untreated severe mental illness is an increasing factor in officer-involved homicides, according to our study “Justifiable Homicides: What is the Role of Mental Illness?.”
Inevitably, the increasing number of confrontations between law enforcement officers and persons with serious mental illness leads to some unfortunate outcomes. Among the most tragic are officer-related shootings of mentally ill individuals, many of which are fatal.
Until we return the responsibility for the care of people with mental illness back to mental health agencies, we will continue to see these types of preventable tragedies.
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