Tag: mental illness

Noted journalist speaks on mental illness

Pete Earley chronicles son’s ordeal, offers tips
by Dave Waddell | Posted May 9, 2018

photo by Dave Waddell

Pete Earley

Desperate to get help for his mentally ill son, journalist Pete Earley told Chicoans Saturday he did things he never thought he’d do.

Earley said he lied about what his son had said, violated his own professional ethics by threatening to summon feared investigative reporter Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” TV fame, and “literally went out and grabbed a doctor” from a crowded emergency room hallway to evaluate his delusional son.

Eventually, Earley’s wife advised him that he couldn’t help his son, Kevin, as a parent, but that he could as a journalist. “For once, I listened to her,” Earley said.

The product was his 2007 book, “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness,” a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Earley, a former Washington Post reporter and author of 15 books, writes a weekly blog about mental health. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Butte County brought Earley to Chico, and he spoke May 5 to about 75 people at Sierra Nevada’s Big Room, bringing some to tears. read more

No sergeant at scene of Phillips killing

Young cops entered home after 'no de-escalation' measures
by Dave Waddell | Posted July 18, 2017

photo by Dave Waddell
photo of Desmond Phillips

 

The Chico police sergeant who gave the green light to sending two relatively inexperienced cops after mentally ill Desmond Phillips with their guns drawn was nowhere near the Phillips residence at the time.

According to computer-assisted dispatch reports obtained by David Phillips, Desmond’s father, and made available to ChicoSol, Sgt. Todd Lefkowitz did not get to the scene until 14 minutes after he was first dispatched and eight minutes after Desmond, a 25-year-old black man, was gunned down by police. Lefkowitz arrived at 7:41 p.m. on March 17, or at approximately the same time the mortally wounded Desmond was carted out of his home and taken to Enloe Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead with a grievous heart wound. read more

Professor blasts Chico cops in fatal shooting

Police should act as 'peacekeepers,' not 'gunslingers'
by Dave Waddell | Posted May 22, 2017
Diane E. Schmidt
Diane E. Schmidt

In an unusually pointed letter, a veteran professor in Chico State’s criminal justice program has blasted the killing of Desmond Phillips by Chico police as showing “extraordinarily poor training, flawed judgment, and gross ineptitude.”

Phillips, a 25-year-old mentally ill black man, was shot 10 times by two officers in his father’s living room just 21 minutes after medical aid was first called to help him March 17.

In a letter dated May 15 to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, Professor Diane E. Schmidt called Phillips’ shooting both a failure of training by Chico PD and of oversight by officials such as Ramsey. The district attorney did not immediately return a call from ChicoSol seeking response to Schmidt’s letter. read more

Swift siege leads to fatal shooting, family’s ire

Home had calmed at time cops entered
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 19, 2017
photo by Karen LasloDelphine Norman, mother of Desmond Phillips, protests outside the April 17 town hall meeting held by Rep. Doug LaMalfa.

photo by Karen Laslo

Delphine Norman, mother of Desmond Phillips, protests outside the April 17 town hall meeting held by Rep. Doug LaMalfa.

The night of Desmond Phillips’ March 17 killing, a Chico police officer shined a flashlight at a window a few paces to the left of the front door of his father’s apartment.

Before that door was forced open, before the knife-holding Desmond was first shot with a Taser and then riddled with police bullets, and before Dave Phillips, shocked and wailing, crawled down the hallway to his dying son’s side, the officer saw an eye peeking through the closed blind.

Behind the blind were Desmond Phillips’ two nephews, ages 12 and 18, together in one of the small home’s two locked bedrooms, on the phone with their mother. Dave Phillips, who had grown increasingly frantic about Desmond’s behavior, had locked himself in the other bedroom and was talking with a police dispatcher. read more

Speakers call for outside investigator in police shooting review

21 minutes from medical call to killing
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 6, 2017
Phillips family photo Desmond Phillips

Phillips family photo

Desmond Phillips

Just 21 minutes elapsed between the time medical aid was first summoned to help Desmond Phillips and the moment when he was gunned down in a hail of Chico police bullets.

Authorities disclosed details this week about the shooting of Phillips, a 25-year-old mentally disturbed black man, who was killed by police in his father’s living room.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey told an April 3 meeting of the Human Relations Network of Butte County (HRN) that two young officers, fearing for their safety, fired 16 rounds at Phillips, hitting him 10 times. Phillips died shortly after being rushed to Enloe Medical Center, he said.

Ramsey is overseeing an investigation by the Butte County Officer Involved Shooting/Critical Incident Protocol Team to determine whether a crime occurred in the killing of Phillips, who was shot March 17 in an apartment on the 700 block of West Fourth Avenue. In addition, the Chico Police Department is conducting its own internal affairs probe of the shooting. read more