VERO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A 29-year-old man being held for mental health at a Florida hospital was shot to death after taking a pair of scissors and threatening to stab police officers, officials said.
The man was one of several people being held at the hospital despite risking injury to themselves or others because there were not enough beds at the local psychiatric hospital, Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers said.
“This is a terrible tragedy, not just for our county, but for our country. We are facing a mental health crisis.”
The man’s family took him to the Cleveland Indian River Clinic emergency department in Vero Beach on Friday after he tried to harm himself, Flowers said during a news conference Sunday.
“He took a pair of scissors, big scissors, and he was running around the hospital,” the police officer said. The officers started chasing him and he raised the scissors above his head.
“At that point our agents started to back off,” Flowers said. “Again, a small narrow hallway, stretchers, all sorts of things were in there. They draw their guns and two of the officers shoot, killing this man.”
The man was being held under Florida’s Mental Health Law, known as the Baker Act, which allows authorities to hold someone in a mental health facility for up to 72 hours if they pose a threat to themselves or someone else.
“The fact that they were there receiving people for suicide incidents under the Baker Act, that they had multiple Baker Act patients waiting to be transferred to the (psychiatric) facility because there are not enough beds, and the fact that this gentleman was waiting a day and a half, it shows the kind of mental health crisis we’re currently in,” Flowers said.
The officers were placed on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.