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Tragedy and Humanity

 



The title of the article upset me so much that it took me a while to read it. And, when I did, the story it told was every bit as awful as I had feared.

Police fatally shoot resident of Columbia complex that supports adults with disabilities, Matti Gellman, Baltimore Banner 

A man who was fatally shot by Howard County Police early Sunday was a resident of an apartment complex dedicated to supporting adults with disabilities, according to the group that manages the complex.

In a statement, Mission First Housing Group said it learned Sunday morning that one of its residents at Patuxent Commons in Columbia was shot and killed outside the property after a wellness check by police.

Some wellness check.

And then I read the comments. I was not prepared for what I learned. 

The vast majority of them were compassionate and wise. I don’t know any of these people personally (at least as far as I know) but they are a cut above the folks who post on the HCPD Facebook page. Each bullet point denotes a separate commenter.


  • I knew this facility was being built and supported it then, and continue to support it. The point is, however, if I, a retired schlub kows about this, why aren't the police aware of the different needs for a place like this? Did they not see this coming? I mean, for bacon's sake, it is on Cedar Lane, along with the hospital, several clinics, and senior homes all within a mile. This corridor is obvious to eveyone local. HoCoPo had a year to train for situations exactly like this. I am disappointed.
  • More police training is needed and enforced. If someone is believed to be disable (mentally or physically) and in a mindset to "harm himself," why would officers shoot to kill? In order to stop a man with a knife, officers could have shot him in the foot/leg, NOT IN A LIFE THREATENING BODY PART. * What sense does it make to shoot someone and THEN perform "lifesaving measures?" The lifesaving measure would have been to refrain from shooting him in a critical area of the body in the first place. Condolences to the victim's family.
  • People don't go to their job planning to do a bad job, but people who are poorly trained, people who are poorly suited for their profession, people who are sheltered from consequences instead of held to a standard, often do. It's not enough to say they probably had good intentions.
  • I assume all police get thorough training in the use of firearms. I've often wondered why so many people are killed by police who you would think, are (or are they?) trained to aim to disarm or disable someone with a weapon without killing them.
  • He was threating to harm himself, so they did it for him. May he rest in peace. May they be charged and convicted...
  • You can subdue a human without killing them. this is unconscionable.

This one just about broke me:

  • When all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.

Something about all this rang a bell for me. I started digging around old blog posts. Ah, here it is.

A Good Week for Mental Health, Village Green/Town², June 26, 2021

Buried in the piece is a link to this article:

Howard County Police Will Defer Mental Health Calls to Counselors , WBAL TV 11 News

But the person in question may not have met the criteria because they expressed intent to harm themselves. So why doesn’t this protocol include a tandem response from the police and a trained counselor?

Of all the comments, the first one I shared is the one that resonated the most with my sentiments.

  • I knew this facility was being built and supported it then, and continue to support it. The point is, however, if I, a retired schlub kows about this, why aren't the police aware of the different needs for a place like this? Did they not see this coming? I mean, for bacon's sake, it is on Cedar Lane, along with the hospital, several clinics, and senior homes all within a mile. This corridor is obvious to eveyone local. HoCoPo had a year to train for situations exactly like this. I am disappointed.

I, too, might call myself a retired schlub**, knew about this well in advance. Let’s not forget all the advocacy it took to bring this project to completion and the usual anti-housing drama before any shovels hit the dirt. 

There was time. Time to learn, time to develop a plan, time to train.

Where was that thorough preparedness when the police responded to a Wellness Check in the early hours of March 1st? I’m not seeing it. 

The commenters on the Baltimore Banner article were a bright light for me in an otherwise irredeemably tragic moment. I salute them. Apparently there is more humanity out there in Howard County than I am used to seeing on Facebook. 


Village Green/Town² Comments 




*Many people have the misconception that police make a judgement call on where they aim to shoot. This is something we’ve all learned from TV dramas, apparently. Police are trained to “shoot to kill.”

**Okay, I looked it up to be sure. Maybe not exactly.




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