On the day before Christmas, Air Force veteran Anthony Hill took to Twitter to defend police officers under fire for alleged excessive force, urging his followers to “stop with the generalizations.”
“If 99 out of 100 cops (are) killing black men like its hunting season that leaves 1 just doing his job,” Hill said.
On Monday, Hill, 27, became the second man in a little more than two months killed by a DeKalb County police officer. He has no known prior record and, according to his Facebook page, served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
Officer Robert Olson, a seven-year veteran, responded to a call of a “suspicious person” around 1 p.m. at The Heights at Chamblee apartment complex, said DeKalb Public Safety Director Cedric Alexander. The officer arrived to find Hill naked and on all fours; witnesses said he had been knocking on apartment doors although there are no indications that he acted in a violent manner.
Though the hot button issues of race and police use of force are already dominating media coverage of the shooting, Hill’s mental state — and whether the officer was adequately equipped to deal with it — seem likely to emerge as key factors in the GBI investigation now underway.
According to mental health advocates, DeKalb police lag behind other metro Atlanta agencies in training officers to control mentally ill people without using force.
Alexander said DeKalb officers receive some training in dealing with the mentally ill while in the academy but acknowledged it was likely insufficient.
“That is becoming more and more apparent,” he said after the shooting.
DeKalb has trained a few officers who accompany mental health workers on critical calls. “But it in no way represents the full department,” said Pat Strode, the program administrator for the Georgia chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Just six days ago Hill tweeted a message of self-acceptance accompanied by the hashtag #IAmBipolar. That same day he wrote on Facebook, “You might be surprised at all the successful people who ‘just can’t get right.’ To everyone in the shadows, I’m here to tell you, no man can ever define you, not even one with ‘Dr’ in front of his name.”
A relative told The New York Times Hill had received treatment from the Veterans Administration and his behavior on Monday might have indicated problems with his medication.
Strode told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that law enforcement needs to be trained to recognize signs of behavioral problems caused by mental illness or substance abuse. Officers are encouraged to engage people in conversation, asking their names or other personal details – “trying to ground them in reality as quickly as you can,” Strode said.
Officers’ safety is always “paramount,” he said, but the program helps them see most mentally ill people are no threat.
“We want them to be able to de-escalate a crisis using verbal cues rather than force,” Strode said. “If force is necessary, we want it to be less lethal.”
Hill, according to Alexander, ran at the officer, ignoring Olson’s commands to stop. It’s unclear how close the unarmed victim was to Olson when the officer fired two fatal gunshots.
There are other unanswered questions investigators will have answer in order to determine whether Olson’s response was justified. Was Hill charging at the officer or just running? Were his hands up, as one witness claimed? And should Olson have deployed his Taser instead of his firearm?
Alexander told reporters Monday those questions would have to be answered by the GBI, which is also investigating the December shooting of a 44-year-old man by a DeKalb officer.
“It is important to all of us in this community that we appear very transparent and open,” Alexander said.
Social justice activists say they are planning a series of demonstrations to protest the latest shooting.
“This is an outrageous killing,” said Aurielle Marie Lucier, co-founder of #itsbiggerthanyou. “We will be less forgiving and less passive about the killing of another black man by law enforcement.”
Hill’s family has declined comment. On Tuesday they hired attorney Christopher Chestnut, who also represents the family of Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year-old former college football player who, while seeking assistance after a car crash, was shot and killed in Sept. 2013 by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C. police officer in 2013. Ferrell was unarmed at the time.
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