Spectrum News is investigating the handling of mental health calls by local law enforcement. If you or someone you know who lives a mental health condition has had an interaction with the Buffalo Police Department and would like to share your story, please email me at Camalot.Todd@Charter.com. Thank you.
Buffalo Police Department (BPD) officer Karl Schultz shot Willie N. Henley, a 60-year-old homeless man, during a mental health call Saturday, September 12.
It is at least the third incident in Western New York where a mental health call to the police escalated.
In June, BPD officers responded to a mental health call where a man, who was struggling with substance use, outside of a 711. Ruweyda Ahmed Salim, a bystander, began filming the incident asking why the response included ten officers.
BPD officer Michael Delong, one of the ten who responded, then used obscene language to referred to Salim.
In March, Rochester police officers responded to a mental health call by Daniel Prude’s brother. Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man, was suffering acute mental health problems and walking down the street naked and bleeding, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Several officers responded with force and used a spit hood, a mesh hood used to prevent spit to be transferred to officers, to restrain Prude, which rendered him unconscious. Prude later died and an autopsy ruled his death as a homicide, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Over 30 percent of people with serious mental illness have their first interaction with the mental health system through law enforcement, according to the Study in Blue and Grey by Canadian Mental Health Association.
Yet, people with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by law officers, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center’s Overlooked in the Undercounted The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters report.
“By dismantling the mental illness treatment system, we have turned mental health crisis from a medical issue into a police matter,” John Snook, co-author of the study, said in a press release. “This is patently unfair, illogical and is proving harmful both to the individual in desperate need of care and the officer who is forced to respond.”
In response to the shooting of Henley, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced a partnership with Endeavor Health social workers to join officers on mental health-related calls.
But this program has been in process since fall 2019 according to documents of Buffalo Common Council in the July meeting, long before the shooting and has been criticized for duplication of services.
Crisis Services, a nonprofit that has long existed in Western New York, criticized the Mayor’s introduction of services as “this would be duplicative of what already exists and will require costly 24/7/365 infrastructure that already exists at Crisis Services. In addition, it is our experience that layering additional crisis response services into the system causes unnecessary confusion for those in need.”
Crisis Services operates a 24-hour, 7-day hotline at 716-834-3131, supportive services for families in crisis through their established Mobile Outreach Program also provides Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) to law officers in the region.
Over 600 officers have been trained in CIT by Crisis Services, Jessica Pirro, the executive director of Crisis Services said in Spectrum News Buffalo’s #IAm1in5 July’s Facebook Live.
“One of the officers on scene was a crisis intervention trained officer. They attempted to speak to the individual who became agitated, got up from where he was sitting and began to walk down Genesee Street,” Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo said of Saturday’s incident.
Against the backdrop of these three local incidents, is the “Defund the Police Movement” which advocates for the funding communities invest in police agencies to be diverted into social services like affordable mental and behavioral healthcare.
Local Buffalo protestors are calling for the resignation of Erie County District Attorney John Flynn, along with Mayor Byron Brown, and Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood.
Crisis Services is advocating for a 911 dispatch diversion pilot program where mental health crisis will be directed away from police and to their team. The program is not currently in place.
Erie County has been implementing and working towards completing the Sequential Intercept Model, a best practice by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services GAINS Center that helps intercept people who are having a mental health crisis and connects them with appropriate services at any point in the criminal justice system, whether during a mental health call like Henley or Prude or at jails, sentencing, etc.
Crisis Services isn’t the only agency that is pushing for a change in approach for mental health calls. Mental Health Advocates of Western New York (MHAWNY) also advocates for alternative interventions in mental health calls and more training for police.
But many providers for mental and behavioral health care end up also addressing social determinants of health or the conditions of where people work, live, and social supports. These social determinants of health can influence a person’s mental health either positively or negatively, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
For example, losing a job, going through a break up, or homelessness, would have a negative impact on a person’s mental health.
With an individual who has a pre-existing mental illness, like Henley or Prude, any number of negative social determinants of health can cause them to go into crisis.
Often, families or bystanders, call on 911 for help to de-escalate a mental health crisis without realizing the consequences can be deadly.
Henley, who is homeless and receiving services at Buffalo City Mission, entered into crisis state swinging a bat and hitting Schultz’s partner, Alyssa Peron. Schultz shot Henley in the chest critically injuring him.
As of Monday, Henley is still in critical, but stable, condition at ECMC’s ICU. He was arraigned there on charges of second-degree assault and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Peron and Schultz are both are currently on administrative leave.
BPD has a “stop the threat” shooting policy, said Michael DeGeorge, the spokesperson for BPD and the mayor.
In addition to this shooting incident, Schultz has 17 complaints against him since he joined the force in 2008, according to the Investigative Post.
The Rochester City Council approved all measures involving an independent investigation into Prude's death, $300,000 toward mental health response and repealed funding on a $16 million police substance, according to Spectrum News Rochester.
The seven officers involved with the Prude killing are suspended without pay.
Delong, who was suspended over the incident in June, also had multiple investigations against him, with this being the fifth in his 20 years.
To learn more about the criminalization of mental illness and substance use, visit Spectrum News aired a 7 part-series Navigating The System below.
Navigating The System: Defunding of Psychiatric Beds Leads More Mentally Ill Behind Bars
Navigating The System: Barriers to Mental Health Care in the Community
Navigating The System: The Holding Center's History with Mental Health, Suicides and Substance Use
Navigating The System: Innovative Improvements To Mental Health Care at ECHC
Navigating The System: Improving Mental Health Care Across Agencies, Counties