Expert: Take down mentally ill aggressor with needles not bullets

He is also recommending a system where mental health officers could be called to help calm a mentally ill person with a sedative, taking them down with “ a needle” instead of bullets.

Deyalsingh was responding to reports of a soldier shooting Edison Thompson, 45, of Princes Town on Friday.

Thompson, who was aboard a bus on Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, attacked a soldier with a hammer and was shot in the buttocks. He was taken to Port of Spain General Hospital where he died. He was the forth mentally ill man to be shot and killed by a member of the protective services.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, Deyalsingh said global reports state that with every successive generation, not only did the number of cases of depression increase, but the people who suffer from the illness were younger. In fact, he said the second highest cause of death in people ages 16 to 29 was suicide.

“We know mental illness is going to increase.

Different factors are bringing on mental illness in terms of poverty, unemployment and other societal issues... If it’s increasing, our encounters with people who are mentally ill will be more.

Meaning, we as normal people who are walking, as well as the police officers will have to deal with it.” He said police and soldiers who have to deal with the public should be trained to assess the risk of a mentally ill person, the level of danger that person poses to themselves and to the public.

He said psychological assessment was a part of training at the Police Academy but after a year or two that knowledge could fade. He suggested continual training, especially as that section of the population was increasing.

In the meantime, he advised the police not to rush in but step back; get a plain-clothes officer if possible because the uniform could frighten them; speak to the person slowly, in a non-confrontational manner; if they are rambling, repeat what they say so they know you are listening to them. He said these things could help calm the person and lessen their aggression enough to apprehend the person.

He said people suffering from mental illnesses were “ten time more likely to be a victim of crime” so non-lethal ways of subduing someone was important – possibly by shooting the person in the foot or with the use of rubber bullets or tasers.

However he stressed that, “In the case of life and death situations, you have no choice but to defend yourself because it is either you or them.” Deyalsingh also suggested making a crisis intervention team of mental health officers available to the police.

Therefore, if the police encountered someone with a problem, a team member could be called to the scene.

He said the mental health officers would be better trained on how to talk to the person. The patient may know the mental health officer if they attended a psychiatric clinic in the area and it would be easier for the officer to deal with the person.

In addition, he said the mental health officer would carry a Haldol injection, a drug used to calm an agitated person.

“We could take them down with needles instead of bullets.” To the average person, if a person seemed to be mentally ill because of their speech or behaviour, it was best not to look the person in the eye. In fact, he suggested avoiding all contact as they could be paranoid or have delusions and react aggressively.

If the mentally ill person approached in an aggressive manner, show your hands and back off and tell them that you were leaving. If they still approach in a confrontational manner, then run.