In some ways this is yet another too typical police-involved shooting (not that police-involved shootings are typical — these kind of calls get handled in the thousands “without incident”). But it’s all here: a man with a gun, mentally disturbed, confronted by police. And not for the first time. The man is black, unlike the previous one I wrote about, in Patterson, NJ, in which the man was white. Here the only white people are the paramedics. That too is not untypical.
This is not an unusual call. It’s a 3AM call for somebody in “behavior crisis.” It’s the fourth such call of the day. The previous day, June 30, there were 36 such calls. On July 1st, this is the 4,071th such call this year for Baltimore City Police. Probably (though I don’t know) this was the first to end with somebody being shot. Anyway if you don’t want cops to respond to this call, you’d need resources to handle up to maybe a half dozen of these “behavior calls” calls an hour. This is for a city of (sigh, less than) 600,000 people.
But this is worth analyzing because, well, it seems to be handled very well by police, and the mentally ill guy still gets shot. The cops do well. They treat the man as a man in crisis and not a mortal threat. they don’t dehumanize him. You don’t hear de rigueur verbal commands for the sake of “controlling the scene.” This is the midnight shift in action.The cops take their time. The cops are calm. They are caring. They try to connect with the guy. They make sure he knows they’re here to help him. They don’t have their guns out even though they strongly suspect the man is armed and turns out to be a mortal threat!
I’d like you to look at this and think, “At what point did the cops make a mistake?” “At what point would I or better yet a trained expert done something differently? Short of the guy being on his meds and/or not having a gun, how could have this turned out differently. But he wasn’t on his meds. And he does have a gun (though we don’t know that, and that’s part of the problem). And the family has tried and failed to managed the situation. So they call 911 because they help.
So we send the cops. And the handle the situation well, in my humble opinion. And a cop comes within a split-second of being killed. And the mentally ill get get shot multiple times (though lives).
When the cops enter the house, the mother-in-law warns them, “It ain’t gonna be that easy.”
The cop replies, “Nothing ever is.” Truer words have never been spoken.
The moment this becomes a lethal force situation happens so fast that I missed it more than once, trying to take notes. From police arriving on scene to shooting takes 18 minutes. But from sight of the gun to the shootings takes less than 2 seconds. Even knowing it’s coming, you’ll miss it. I guarantee it.
The other reason I’m writing a lot is to weed out the weak! But seriously, I can’t force you to watch the whole video, but if you’re still interested and willing to watch the shooting part, watch the whole damn thing. My point is not to show violence, but how to prevent it. Or, unfortunately accept that sometimes, for many reasons, it is inevitable.
After the shooting the Mayor of Baltimore says through a spokesman that the shooting was under an “active investigation.” The Maryland ACLU said: “In Maryland, this has become a disturbingly familiar pattern – where officers called to assist someone in mental distress instead trigger a crisis, failing to see the person’s humanity and shooting instead of helping. This latest incident further points out how Baltimore’s over-dependence on police is setting them up to fail, and costing unnecessary lives.” Gosh. Sounds horrible.
“This is why the ACLU of Maryland and and more than 60 other organizations across the state are demanding that the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights be repealed…. #BlackLivesMatter”
So the ACLU says this would not have happened if only LEOBOR were repealed. (Personally I’m not a big fan of LEOBOR, but that’s neither here nor there right here). The ACLU is literally taking this man’s death, a man a crisis, a black man, and using it for political gain. This needs to be pointed out. It’s a shitty thing to do. Anyway, after (hopefully) proper redactions, a few days later the BPD did release the body cam footage. As far as I know the ACLU never said anything about maybe the cops did pretty well here, all things considered.
From the Sun: The police commissioner said that after the shooting by the officers, the residence where the shooting occurred was searched and eight weapons were found, including a second weapon registered to Walker. Asked whether police should have taken steps after the first incident to determine whether Walker had additional weapons, Harrison said the investigation was “ongoing.”
The police commissioner could have should have been more laudatory about the professionalism of the officers. It’s not exactly the defense you’d like to hear from your boss after you just had to shoot someone, had your game taken away, and worry if the prosecutor will slap you with criminal charges.
Think that’s crazy? Cops fear getting in trouble not for doing wrong, but for doing right. Just one year ago Sgt. Bill Shiflett confronted an active murderer and got shot for his efforts. For his troubles, Mosby, the prosecutor, held potential criminal charges against him for 7 months. I don’t know why. You’ll have to ask her. But this is policing today.
This police-involved shooting, as is common, starts with a 911 call. It’s after 3AM on Wednesday, July 1, 2020. The call itself is very well handled. Mother in law calls and says: Last time he was drinking he had a gun. … He’s a psych mental patient. … Yelling and screaming and ranting. … Last time they give him two shots and took him to [the hospital.] … My daughter is trying to get him to come up. … My daughter’s husband is in the basement and he’s paranoid or schizophrenic. … He was diagnosed with that couple weeks ago. … He’s down in the basement and he’s like that now.
Operator: Is he having an episode or something?
Yes.
Operator: How old?
33 years.
Operator: I’m making request for an ambulance. Is he violent?
I guess. I don’t know.
Operator: Possibly or likely?
Yes. Possibly.
Operator: Does he have a weapon?
That I don’t know.
Operator: Is he thinking about suicide?
I don’t know.
Operator: Is he completely alert?
Not really. Hearing voices.
Operator: I’m going to send the paramedics and well as police. They’re going to monitor.
You should make them silent cause he’s going to go crazy when he hears.
Operator: They usually do accordingly for certain calls.
And then standard instructions are given about setting up the house and whether people have COVID. The whole call takes two minutes and thirty seconds. The cop on 414 post gets a medium-priority call for a “behavior crisis” and probably takes about 15 minutes to get there. Another officer would be assigned as backup. Usually this can of call involves standing around while paramedics do their thing.
It’s worth pointing out that all three cops parked some distance from the house, as they should… but that didn’t used to happen when I was there. Better to take a minute to approach on foot and judged the scene. Also they didn’t want to block the ambulance in. Anyway, to me it’s noteworthy. Also there were no sirens. But it’s late night/early morning. Only the ambulance has its flashing lights on. The fire department does that. Partly they just like their lights. But also it does provide a beacon to approaching vehicles, which can be life saving.
Anyway, so once the cops are there, at the front door, with paramedics, we get this additional information from the mother in law. She is on the phone with her daughter, who is in the basement with her daughter’s husband, Walker. The mother in law says the following: Running down the street acting crazy. … When the found him last time he was ranting, he had a gun. … He is a psych patient. … Down there screaming and ranting now. … He probably didn’t take his meds. “I’m doing this natural. I’m doing this natural.” He ain’t harmed nobody.… About 2 weeks ago running up and down the street. That’s him.
Paramedics know the guy from the previous week’s incident, when he was running around, maybe shooting a gun? I’m not sure. One paramedic asks the other if he is combative. The other replies, “very.” So they won’t go in. And it’s not their job. So at 5min 34sec (on Officer Gray’s bodycam, below) two police enter the house. A third joins later. This is 4 minutes after Gray got out of his police car. There’s no rush. That’s good.
Walker’s wife, the caller’s daughter, can’t get him to come upstairs. She probably been trying for hours. Eventually she concedes what she’s doing isn’t working and says cops are going to come downstairs.
When everybody gives up, cops go in. The wife can’t get her husband to come up. The paramedics won’t go down. There is no dedicated social worker cops know to call. But is that really the solution at this point? Like the paramedics, it’s hard to social workers going down without cops. And I’m not certain what they would do that the cops didn’t. The mother and father in law? God knows what they think about how they got in this situation. Pops seems to have given up. But I’m sure it’s been a very long night. Again.
So should the cops refuse to go in because it’s dangerous? They can’t. Or maybe the cops leave and say this isn’t a job for police. Except it is. Because it’s dangerous. The police are our responders. And they’re trained. Their goal is to get this guy to either calm down enough so the cops can leave and the paramedics can have a look. Or to get take the man into custody and get him safely into appropriate medical care. That’s it, right? Those are the choices.
Baltimore Police released video. This is the video from Officer Gray’s bodycam. This is the one I’m going to use. But here is the video from Officer Torand. And from Del Valle (I’m not certain why there isn’t video at the moment he’s doing most of the shooting. Could be too gory. Could be malfunction. Could be a massive cover up!… but it’s not). Here’s the the version edited by the BPD which they released for the press conference. It’s a good job and kind of covers it all. But it’s also a bit confusing since they show multiple bodycams and slow-mo and stop things down at times. But police work in real time. I like real time. Finally, here’s Justin Fenton’s article in the Baltimore Sun. (Fenton does a good job, but I don’t want that to go to his head.)
Gray asks for addition units at 5min 37sec (this is not clock time, but the time on the video, which is the after the officer started his body cam). The officer confirms the name of the man in “distress.” It’s about 4AM. Gray and another officer go to the basement at 6:15. At 6:40 they ask the wife to clear out, and they tell her that medics are there. The man’s name is Walker. The timeline below is this video. The transcript is edited and not complete. The only white people I can see are the paramedics, which isn’t that uncommon for Baltimore. I’ll leave to you to say if that matters.
This is the video that corresponds with the timeline, below.
7:30 Cops: Your family called us.
7:42 Walker: Come in front to the cameras. [This is in reference to cameras that may but probably do not exist.]
8:00 Walker: Trying to take my life. In my house illegally. And about to kill me.
8:25 Walker: Distorted because my wife tried to poison me.
8:48 Walker: Take your masks down.
9:23 Cops: If he takes his mask off?
9:38 Cops: Can you listen to me? I‘ll go in front of the camera if you take that knife out of your pocket.
10:10 Cops: Where are the cameras?
10:15 Walker: I know tribal tattoos when I see them.
10:17 Cops: We’re trying to help you. The medics are upstairs.
10:45 Walker: Nobody called y’all.
11:00 Walker: He’s been sleeping with my wife. Whole time.
11:20 Cops: Do you feel like you want to hurt yourself?
11:22 Walker: Hell no.
11:39 Walker: Come shake my hand like a man.
11:45 Walker: [third officer arrives about now] I don’t know him, sir. Can you take down your mask please. And if I kill you inside my house, it’s legal, yo. I’m peaceful.
At some point the specifics of the dialogue here don’t really matter. This man simply isn’t all there. Times like this were only time I was afraid as a cop. That moment when I realized that all the words I said, any empathy I had? They mean nothing. And there lots of red flags. Messianic references to rising from the dead. Threats. Paranoia. Speaking to God. None of this is a good, from the cops’ perspective. But they do their best to stay calm and get the man to comply and come upstairs.
12:14 Cops: Your family is here. If your family comes down…
12:20 Walker: I apologize come. Shake my hand. I was chastised. They poisoned me. …Take off your mask .
12:45: Cops: I took off my mask….. I can’t take off the gloves.
12:55 Walker: How’d I get to the hospital illegally.
13:12 Walker: The police are here illegally. I didn’t invite them in.
13:20 Walker: I died. I came back on the third day. On the cameras.
13:35 Walker: Every time I’m in front of cameras they still trying to kill me. The whole time they kept trying to kill me. Please they tried to kill me other day. I don’t know you. You either.
13:55 Cops: The ambulance is upstairs and we’re trying to help you.
14:10 Walker: [to the heavens] Please save my life. They’re trying to kill me in real life. On camera. I don’t know how these people got here. [yelling] Bosses only king chambers. Get out my chambers!
14:35 Walker: They’re trying to kill me in real life.
14:42 Cops: They’re the medics behind us.
14:45 Walker: How’d they get here when I didn’t invite them.
14:48: Cops: Cause your family called them.
14:50: Walker. I hate everything.
15:25 Walker: [Yelling] You can’t kill me. Everything recorded, yo.
15:55 Walker: Y’all can’t kill me in real life.
16:10 Cops: If you’re not able to go with us, then we’re going to have to put cuffs on you.
16:15 Walker: I’m on camera. You can’t kill me in real life. You gonna kill me in front of my father. It’s my real life. Can you lock them up before I die, yo?
16:47 Cops: Nobody is trying to kill you. Nobody is trying to harm you.
16:49 Walker: Everybody in my house right now. They’re moving stuff. They’re trying to kill me.
16:51 Cops: We’re trying to help you.
16:52 Walker: They’re moving stuff, you. Why y’all trying to kill me. All y’all was here the other day. Sheriffs here! Please save my life.
[Officer moves camera right to side of Walker, moves an object that we could trip over. Officer Gray silently points to two possible weapons. This is a tight team. I like that.]
17:15 Walker: Why ya’ll getting close. I died in real life. Please save my life. The sharps are here, yo. Why you moving stuff, yo?
17:30 Cops: Keep your hands out your pocket. Keep your hand out your pocket.
17:35 [officer on right move what I think is a knife from off the top of the dryer.]
17:38 Walker: I’m distorted. Everything is recorded yo. I’m distorted because these people trying to kill me. Can I get a hug, yo?
17:48 Cops: Do you want to go with the medics?
17:48 Walker: Come give me a hug in front of the camera.
17:55 Walker: I didn’t invite these people in. Quarantine and chill. I’ve been begging to chill all day.
17:56 Cops: Do you want to go upstairs with the medics?
17:58 Walker: I ain’t going nowhere. [Angry] Cause I’m all natural!
18:08 Cops: Did you take your medication.
18:11 Walker: Naw. That shit fake.
18:15. So listen. The medics are outside. Can we get you upstairs for the medics to have look at you?
18:16:00 [Walker’s hand goes in his pocket. No visible officer has their hand on their gun. Though I would hope the third officer, Torand, the one behind Gray does have his gun in hand.]
18:17:05 [Walker’s gun is visible. And yes, here the timelines has to go into milliseconds. You’d have to watch this multiple times frame-by-frame (like I did) to see how all the cops react in sync, without saying a word, to that gun that just appeared. This is where training kicks in. There’s no hesitation. There can’t be. This whole time there, the officers were focused. Completely. And aware of their surrounds. Hyper aware.]
18:17:17 [Walker’s gun aimed right at officer’s bodycam. This image is highlighted in the BPD edited version, and for good reason. Yes, the cop is looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. In freeze frame, in hindsight, I see his finger is not yet on the trigger. The fact that Walker doesn’t have a good grip on the gun is what saves the cops’ lives. It buys them an extra second.]
18:17:29 [Cop on right starts to reach for gun. Walker’s gun is visible at 18:17:05. 1/5th of a second (00:00:20) is the standard alert human’s reaction time.]
18:18:00 [Walker lowers his arm holding the gun.]
18:18:18 [Cop on right gets to his gun holster.]
18:19:06 [Walker starts to raise gun toward cop on right.]
18:19:17 [First shot. Not clear from whom. BPD says Torent, behind Gray, fired. If so, he probably fired first. Just be happy Gray didn’t jump to his left to take cover. It’s not a good shooting position to be in. But what can you do? We see Del Valle on the right fire at least 3 rounds, the 3rd through 5th shot.]
18:19:22 [Walker is in shooting position, aimed at officer on right.
18:19:50 [A second shot is heard. I don’t from whom or exactly when.]
18:20:06 [Cop on right fires the 3rd shot.]
18:20:15 [Cop on right fires 4th shot.]
18:20:24 [Cop on right fires 5th shot. The cops stop shooting ends exactly 1.07 seconds after they start shooting. Why? Because in that one second the threat was no longer a threat. “Shoot to incapacitate. That’s how I was trained. They haven’t killed Walker (they could have), but they ended the threat. So they stop shooting. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. Quite often, too often, despite training, what happens in “contagion shooting.” Once one shot goes off, everybody shoots, and next you know all the cops have emptied their magazine and 1 of them somehow managed to reload and fires even more. That doesn’t happen here. It’s really impressive.]
18:26 Cops: Twenty-three [unit number], shots fired get the medics down here.
18:29 Walker: I’m still alive. You saved my life. They shot me. Please save my life.
18:45 Cop: Where’s the gun? He had a gun.
18:46 Cop: Medics!
18:46 Cop: Put him in cuffs!
Cops went from “no visible threat” to shooting in 2 seconds. In the next second cops went from 1st shot fired to 5th and last shot fired. From the first bullet, it is just 7 seconds before the cops are calling on the radio for a medic to help save Walker’s life.
In the proverbial “split second,” cops see a threat, respond, shoot, stop the threat, stop shooting, and then render aid. All this despite the fact that (presumably) none of them has ever been in this situation before.
That’s what training is about. In times of crisis it’s supposed take over, because you literally don’t have time to think. Had the officer not fired when he did, had he been just maybe 1/4 second slower on the draw. He’d likely be dead. Had Walker’s gun been just a “gun-like” object, the cops would be facing criminal charges. As I like to say, “how was your day at the office?”
I believe the gun was indeed loaded, but I don’t know that for sure. But really, does it matter? What if it had been a BB gun? Or a cell phone? It doesn’t matter. Are the cops supposed to stand there and take one in the face before returning fire? Who can watch this saying the cops shouldn’t have shot this man exactly when the did?
Anyway, these cops are tight, working together as a team. Never do they raise their voice. The communicate with each other barely saying a word. They try to connect with Walker. They say his name. Nothing works. I can’t think of what they did wrong. In hindsight, perhaps they sould have just Tazed him right off the bat. But had they done that, I would criticize them for that. Doesn’t mean I’m right. But the truth is the guy wasn’t a sure threat until he pulled out a gun. His hands were mostly in the air. He is delusional. And has worrisome fits of flexing anger. But he’s not actually a threat to cops… until he is. And the cops treat him accordingly both before and after.
In too many videos you see cops standing around after shooting somebody still shouting, “Let me see your fucking hands!” This said to somebody who may not be moving because… he’s dead or dying. But one thing BPD has been good at for decades is the first priority is always: “render aid.” [By the way, cops, at least in Baltimore, didn’t call for “medics” until veterans started coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan post 2001. Before the endless war, we just called for an “Ambo.”]
Also, does it matter that Walker was black? Did that change police behavior. The public sure thinks it does. Doesn’t seem very relevant to me here. Nor does the officers’ various skin tones seem to matter. But you know what probably didn’t help? The narrative Walker was pretty convinced of: that cops are there to kill him.
In comes down to this: this man can’t be left to his own devices, not in the state he’s in. So let’s accept that some response is needed. At 3AM. Who? Well, paramedics, of course. They respond. But they won’t go in without cops because this guy was “very” combative with them just the other week. Is a social worker or shrink going to come and calm him down? Maybe. But I doubt it. Not with the history of guns and violence. But if an unarmed social worker and psychiatrist want to go down to that basement and offer themselves up as an human shield, police will gladly stand behind them.
(Update 6/17/21: Here’s an article in the Washington Post about mental health response in Montgomery County, MD, that goes well with this post.)
