NYCity Mayor, Police Commissioner Condemn Fatal Police Shooting

On its front page, the New York Times (10/19, A1, Rosenberg, Southall, Subscription Publication) reports on the shooting Tuesday by a New York City police officer of 66-year-old Deborah Danner, a Bronx woman with schizophrenia, a “confrontation…condemned in swift and striking terms by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill.”

Both de Blasio and O’Neill “said the officer had failed to follow the Police Department’s protocol for dealing with an emotionally disturbed person.” The mayor faulted the officer for not waiting for “more specialized officers from the department’s elite Emergency Service Unit to arrive.” De Blasio “also noted that Sergeant Barry was equipped with a stun gun that he could have used to try to subdue Ms. Danner.”

Even though New York City has started “providing its rank-and-file officers with more advanced training on dealing with people with mental illness,” only “about 4,400 of the” NYPD’s “roughly 36,000 officers” have received Crisis Intervention Training.

Related Links:

— “In Quick Response, de Blasio Calls Fatal Shooting of Mentally Ill Woman ‘Unacceptable’,” ELI ROSENBERG and ASHLEY SOUTHALL, New York Times, October 19, 2016.

Posted in In The News.