Mentally Ill Pose Problems For Cops

When a delusional Aaron Snyder continued to advance after revealing the gun beneath his jacket, the State Patrol officer did what he was trained to do.

"You can't think, 'Hey, this guy is mentally ill, so he probably won't shoot.' ... You are looking at the gun, and is the guy going to use the gun?" said Edward Connors, president of the Institute for Law and Justice, a nonprofit organization in Virginia that works with police agencies to improve training.

Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman have praised the actions of Colorado state Trooper Jay Hemphill, who shot and killed Snyder on Monday at the Capitol after Snyder claimed he was "the emperor" and motioned toward his fully loaded .357 revolver. Hemphill twice ordered Snyder to stop advancing.

But the case again raises issues of what happens when law enforcement officers encounter mentally ill people exhibiting violent behavior, as did Snyder, whose mother told people he had been diagnosed as delusional and was under the care of a psychiatrist.

Mentally ill people pose a difficult problem for police, who try to protect themselves and the public without hurting someone who is deranged, said Connors. Since 2002, more than 70 Colorado law enforcement agencies have sent more than 1,800 officers to Crisis Intervention Team training to learn how to defuse potentially violent interactions with disturbed people.

The Denver Post