Family says Walter Wallace Jr., killed by Philadelphia police, needed mental health treatment
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Monday afternoon, police officers arrived at Walter Wallace Jr.'s West Philadelphia row home for a third time that day. Relatives said he was having "another one of his episodes."
In the past, when emotions ran high, Wallace, 27, an aspiring rapper and father of eight, could be pacified with the mention of his young children or a song he liked. But he grappled with mental illness, including bipolar disorder, and he had been going to therapy as recently as last week, said Anthony Fitzhugh, a cousin.
"Whenever I've been around and he was having an episode, I've always been able to say, 'Little cuz, little cuz, come on,'" Fitzhugh said. "It might take him a second, but if you know the things that will de-escalate, like he loves music, he loves his kids, when you start talking about these kinds of things ... sometimes it's easier to de-escalate whatever he may be going through."
The state of Wallace's mental health — and how familiar police were with his history — has sparked questions about officers' response at the scene and their use of lethal force in approaching him. His death, which comes after a series of high-profile cases of Black people dying at the hands of law enforcement, has also renewed the focus on a wider discussion about policing and mental health and how to best defuse unstable situations.
Family members said that they called 911 to request an ambulance and had hoped for Wallace to receive medical intervention but that police arrived first.
The encounter was partly captured on cellphone video, which shows Wallace getting shot multiple times in front of his mother and neighbors after officers appeared to tell him to put down a knife as he approached them. The two officers involved have not been publicly identified, and an internal investigation continues.
"I was telling PD to stop. 'Don't shoot my son, please don't shoot my son,'" Wallace's mother, Cathy Wallace, told reporters Tuesday night. "And they just shot him."
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Wednesday that 911 calls and officer bodycam video will be released publicly after Wallace's family is first notified in the coming days.
The city remains on edge. A second night of protests erupted Tuesday with more reports of looting and injured officers, despite the family's call for calm. Several hundred members of the Pennsylvania National Guard have been requested to help in the event of further unrest.
Wallace's family members and their attorney are adamant that police did not have to resort to deadly force. They said Wallace's wife, whom he recently married and who is due to give birth any day to his ninth child, had relayed his mental health struggles to police at the scene before they shot him.
"When you come to a scene where somebody is in a mental crisis, the only tool you have to deal with it is a gun. That's a problem," said the family's attorney, Shaka Johnson. "I would have a problem if my carpenter came to my house with only a hammer. Where is your screwdriver, sir? Where is the proper tool for the job?"
Wallace had been taking lithium, a mood stabilizer used to treat bipolar disorder, Johnson said.
Philadelphia police said calls were made to the home twice earlier in the day for domestic disturbances before a third call was made about a man armed with a knife.
Wallace's family has not detailed what led to the calls that day. But Cathy Wallace said that when police were there earlier, she felt as though the family weren't being taken seriously and "they stood there and laughed at us."
Outlaw has declined to say what past interactions Wallace may have had with police, citing the investigation.
"I think it's safe to say that once officers were on the scene, people were saying that there may have been mental health issues there," she said Wednesday. "But that's what the investigation will reveal ... what was known to the officers at the time they responded, what was dispatched, how that information was shared and then how that information was utilized as it relates to the police response."
Relatives said there had been previous incidents that required calls to police. City court records show that Wallace had been in and out of the criminal court system since at least 2013 and had had previous disputes with relatives but that judges had advised mental health treatment.
When the family called 911, they "were hoping and trusting that the police are going to help," said Fitzhugh, Wallace's cousin. "They're not going to make that call thinking the police is going to come and kill their son."
Fitzhugh said the scenario might have turned out differently if the officers who shot Wallace had been equipped with stun guns.
Outlaw confirmed this week that budget constraints have left some officers without the use of stun guns, and she said Wednesday that plans to provide them to more officers must move forward.
In addition, she said, the police department needs to improve its relationships with community mental health agencies so officers arriving for such calls can better understand people's mental health history and respond accordingly. The police department tried to expand its crisis intervention training a decade ago, but Outlaw said that its efforts must be re-evaluated and that it needs a behavioral health unit.
A protester stands on a vehicle as demonstrators clash with riot police during a rally Tuesday after the death of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man who was shot by police in Philadelphia.Yuki Iwamura / Reuters
While some observers say trained counselors and not police officers should respond to mental health crisis calls, the introduction of a weapon requires a police response to ensure that people are safe, said Joe Smarro, a former officer with the San Antonio Police Department who worked on its mental health unit and its crisis intervention team for more than a decade.
Just because a person has a weapon does not mean the situation requires lethal force, Smarro said, but each call is different, and the outcome depends on an officer's training.
"I have talked to people holding knives and guns and have not shot any of them and I have never died, but that doesn't make me 'right' or 'wrong,'" he said. "It just is."
John DeCarlo, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven who was chief of police in Branford, Connecticut, said he believes training officers how to deal with different types of mental and behavioral health can make all the difference in decisions to escalate to excessive or deadly force.
But DeCarlo said communities have to be willing to fund such training and make it available regularly to officers to keep up with the advancing study of mental health.
"In the short term, police chiefs and officers need to talk to their communities," DeCarlo said. "We are training police officers as though they are soldiers. Soldiers have enemies, but police officers have communities."
Wallace's family said they want those responsible for his death to be held accountable. But whether that will happen has Wallace's father, Walter Wallace Sr., wrestling with his own mental health. He is traumatized by his son's death and is going to need help, he said.
"You see your son butchered, I would ask how you feel," he said.
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Once again....calling on the police to intercede in an alleged mental health episode....and then expecting them to stand there and be shot or stabbed
If the guy had mental problems, who in the hell was the mental giant who let him carry a knife?
Once again, you and other MAGAs don't know the reality!
Watch the video below.
The Philadelphia Community Is Outraged After Police Killed A Man In Front Of His Mother … His Mother was begging police to allow her to calm down HER AUTISTIC SON who was at least TEN FEET AWAY FROM THE TWO OFFICERS WHO SHOT HIM …
14 times … when a single bullet to a knee would have stopped the incident.
The man had a knife and was at least ten feet away from the officers who shot him 10 times!
No excuse for the looting or the shooting. WATCH THE VIDEO at the link!
I didn't realize he was autistic. And 14 bullets is excessive.
Amac,
10 feet takes about a second to cover for someone moving in that direction. Some get real cavalier with other people's lives when it not them a second away from getting stabbed and possibly killed.
Police are trained to shoot center mass for obvious reasons. First they aren't marksman and this isn't Hollywood. Shooting a moving target while the requisite adrenaline from a life threatening situation is pounding through your body is not easy. Trying to shoot a leg increases the chances of missing, and thus wounding or killing innocent bystanders. Second, shooting someone in the leg often doesn't slow them down. Not with regards to the second or so it takes to traverse 10 feet.
The idea that police should shoot legs is nice for Hollywood, but decades of study and experience have shown why they are taught to shoot center mass.
but decades of study and experience have shown why they are taught to shoot center mass.
That sounds a lot like you-know-who "proving" his contention with "everyone knows," or, "lots of people are saying".
Watch the video Sean.
Always the apologist.
I know you didn't bother to make a substantive response, but maybe this will educate you. Here's a good summary of the thinking behind police tactics:
Michael Avery, an expert in the field of police use-of-force and author of "Police Misconduct: Law and Litigation," who lives in New Orleans, agreed with Huber. Avery said it is "not really practical" to attempt to shoot the gun out of someone's hand. Moreover, law enforcement officers are trained to aim at the center of a person's body.
Huber added police shooting scenarios often occur in poorly lit places with "little to no warning." The consequence of missing the shot, he said, can be the potential death of the officer or others. In addition, he said most local police officers or sheriff's deputies carry pistols, which are more difficult to aim than other types of guns....
Wounding someone in the leg or another less lethal body part will not stop the person from potentially inflicting serious injury or death on an officer or another member of the public, he said. Thus police are trained to aim for the torso or the middle of a person's body.
Huber said in cases when lethal use of force is justified, inflicting a single, non-fatal wound is not enough to remove the threat that person represents to the officer or others.
To illustrate his point, Huber discussed the physiology of why one single shot from police is not enough when use of lethal force is legally justified. Unless an airway or certain parts of the central nervous system, such as the brain stem or upper spinal cord, are struck by a bullet, a person isn't guaranteed to lose consciousness until they lose about 40-to-50 percent of their blood, Huber said.
If a person does not lose enough blood, he or she is "still able to fight," he said. That's why officers are trained to fire multiple times when they are justified in doing so.
To demonstrate how quickly shots are fired in use-of-force situations, Huber showed reporters a video of three agents who were instructed to fire their handguns at a target at a fast pace. During the 4-second video, he said, a total 37 rounds were fired. Huber said in a use-of-force situation, several shots are fired to cause enough damage to stop the person, and also because many of the gunshots generally miss the target.
Always the apologist
Not really. I'm just not cavalier with other people's lives and don't expect them to have to act like superheroes when forced to make a split second decision in a life or death situation.
This is the first time I've read that he was autistic. All media reporting has said is that he had an undefined "mental illness".
Autism is a mental illness/disorder
I'm well aware of that, Trout Giggles. In comment 1.3.5 I said ...
So it is a mental illness except it also isn't?
It is not shameful to suffer mental illness...
(a) Deadly force means that force which a reasonable person would consider likely to cause death or serious bodily harm. Its use may be justified only under conditions of extreme necessity, when all lesser means have failed or cannot reasonably be employed. A protective force officer is authorized to use deadly force only when one or more of the following circumstances exists:
The victim's mother was not permitted by the police to get between her son and the two police officers; the video shows the proximity of the mother immediately after the shots killed her son. The knife, albeit potentially a deadly weapon, was so small as to be virtually impossible to make out in the video.
By all means, police officers should be able to stop would-be perpetrators, but 14 shots from two officers fired at one perpetrator … had that perpetrator been white … no way … not Kyle Rittenhouse, not the shooter who killed 9 black people in a church … but the black man shot 7 times in the back while getting into his car … George Floyd … want the list for just the Trump years?
Didn't you say that he was autistic? These are very broad spectrums of mental illness, by the way.
I don't know what to. . write. Guns/knives/Mothers/Police. All the characters are present and yet the dynamics come out the same every time. Youtube has plenty of video of police talking (white) men down with guns. Another fatal shooting 'done by the book' in haste.
Nope...most us support law enforcement, while others apologize for criminal behavior
So bring race into it....typical and expected.
Yeah Greg, black people want to be show every advantage to live through an event like this; and, not get shot down excitedly like some type of fearsome beast! Is that a problem?
And shame on those who judge every such incident as "justified" without knowing the details … because the "perpetrator" who ends up dead is black … how bout you rag on this shit …
Wolverine Watchmen militia linked to Whitmer kidnap plot has Boogaloo ties
For perspective, here are some of the other residents of the same Philly neighborhood.
Really fucks up the racist stereotypes …
Prior to reading any other replies, I have chosen to reply to the materials provided in this article. However, I will preface with the fact that I not only have friends that are bipolar, but family too. I am very aware of the actions / reactions often displayed by those with bipolar disorder. I am also very aware that it is not something that can be controlled merely by wishing it so. It is a disorder that requires medical and therapeutic intervention. Those that do not understand the disorder, don't understand why the person suffering bipolar disorder is doing what he / she is doing.
I would like to know who in his household is ensuring that he's actually taking his medications. Without someone ensuring this is taking place, those with bipolar disorder often think that because they feel better, they no longer require the medication. An example, an anecdote if you will: my best friend and I were on the phone when she started talking about things that were on the extreme side of things [won't get into details] and I asked her, "Honey, has anyone ever diagnosed you as bipolar"? Her reply was, "Yes." When I asked her if she was on medication for it her reply was, "Yes, but I feel great now, so I stopped taking them." I advised her to return to her therapist and discuss this information. At first, the medication she was on, was not right for her; now... she's on the appropriate combo for HER. Lithium isn't always the appropriate medication, but only a doctor / psychiatrist would know enough to say that. If this guy saw his therapist last week, I would be questioning the therapist.
If I had been in that situation, as his family, I wouldn't have kept calling 911; I would've called his psychiatrist.
My best friend's fiancé called me one evening about a situation that he didn't know how to handle. My BF had been ill with some sort of gastrointestinal virus, which prevented her meds from staying down for nearly a week. She had an episode, told her fiancé that she was leaving and took off. She had thrown away her brand new refill of meds and the trash had already been picked up. I told him to call her doctor / psychiatrist to get a new refill authorized. I called her. She was already 1/2 way to Chicago from Traverse City. She picked up and said, "I'm not talking to anyone" and hung up. This occurred a few times. I finally got her to pull over and talk to me. She had some crazy story about the reason she left and decided that she's never going back, except to get her daughter, was because her fiancé didn't caulk around the sink. She hadn't even asked him to do that, but it was her reason for leaving. I calmly asked her if that was a sound reason for leaving and potentially losing her daughter. She screamed at me that she would never lose her daughter. I then calmly asked her what she thought a judge would say in a custody battle, knowing she's currently an unmedicated bipolar sufferer without any means of support, because she has no family around [most have passed away, her dad lives in AZ and is in his 80s]; while her fiancé has a job, family, health insurance, and didn't just abandon everyone because someone didn't caulk the sink. That was the part of the conversation that got her to turn around. I then let her know that I had her fiancé call her psychiatrist to get her meds refilled and that he holds no ill feelings about the situation. He was truly just worried about her. He loves her to the moon and back, but this was a time that he knew he couldn't handle the situation and knew that I could get her to talk to me.
Police officers get paid a garbage wage; they're not going to assess if there's a mental issue causing this behavior. Their only concern is if there's someone in danger and neutralizing said danger in any way they can or have the means to do. Is it always right? Clearly, not. Budget cuts obviously did NOT help this situation from escalating the way it had.
Budget cuts in Philly precluded these officers from having tasers! That is part of the story.
Philly Police Killing of Walter Wallace Jr. Renews Calls for De-Escalation Training
Some police advocates highlight the fact that Wallace was holding a knife when officers shot him. But reformers wonder if officer training prioritizes keeping people alive.
The police commissioner acknowledged that the officers involved in the shooting were not equipped with Tasers, which may otherwise have been an option for them to de-escalate the situation using non-lethal means. The department is now required to provide all officers with a Taser and a specific training module for using it — a process that is not yet up to date.
That's why I mentioned the budget cut in the first place.
You say Tomato, I say Tomahto, You say Potato, I say Potahto, You say Man with Mental Health Issues, I say Knife Wielding Maniac.
You say Tomato, I say Tomahto, You say Potato, I say Potahto, You say Man with Mental Health Issues, I say Knife Wielding Maniac.
Of course you do; that way you don't have to address 14 bullets and the dead man's mother who told police of her son's mental condition.
But, I'll offer you the opportunity to show consistency in your approach; what did you see with white nationalists plotting to kidnap and murder a Governor becsause she advocated safety measures to mitigate what has killed 225,000+ Americans? Kyle Rittenhouse murdering two unarmed people then walking with the murder weapon past multiple police officers.
Whadya' see then?
A bunch of whack-job criminals who were arrested and will be prosecuted and no doubt put in prison where they belong. If they had been foolish enough to resist arrest and tried to use deadly weapons against the arresting officers they too would have been shot full of holes and I would have been all right with that. Anybody who wanted to do what they wanted to do is obviously crazy so do you think they should go to prison or counseling? I say Prison! Also I'm glad they were arrested before they hurt anyone.
I think we are in agreement.
Why didn't they use a taser?
Per the article the family called 911 and asked for an ambulance the police showed up.
Kavika and A'Mac, this is what is so sad about this. The public is really ignorant of how police operate (do what they do). Only when we encounter police do we "interact" with police. Them in the authority and power of their office to arrest and take life (if need be) and us, in our role as "CITIZEN" moving awkwardly and carelessly in the face of a man or woman intensively watching our every move.
I can not tell you how many times I watch these videos and see callous hand or careless attitudes from the public when dealing with police officers. For example:
Death is so final. And yet the public do not seem to "process" that when in service of the public (and the badge) a public servant will "terminate" life in an instance. If it is frame of mind to follow through to such a conclusion. On the other hand if an officer/s wish to spare life they can do so also.
One more: (Knife involved. Mentally disturbed man.)
Are police in Albuquerque too quick to shoot?
Why do police have any expectation that mental disturbed people will do anything 'proper' in these situations? Is the words, "mentally disturbed" a tip off to send a negotiator of some kind?
People shot to death by U.S. police, by race 2017-2020
Johnson said the video, which has yet to be made public, shows the officers on the scene for around a minute before the shots ring out. Officers, he said, were about "a car length and a half" away from Wallace when they fired their weapons. Johnson said he heard one of the officers say "shoot him" a few seconds before the shooting takes place. He said he rewound the tape a few times to listen back.