This is the tragic story of a transgender person with mental illness, who was shot and killed by police in her home after suffering a suicidal meltdown.
Remember Danielle Jacobs, the 24-year-old with Asperger’s Syndrome, who posted a video last summer of herself having a meltdown and being comforted by her service dog? When Jacobs hits herself in the chest and head repeatedly, her Rottweiler Samson uses his paws and his body to block her hands from her head.
One month and 2.4 million views later, Huffington Post did a story about how a dog can help stop a meltdown and Jacobs explained:
“When I have a meltdown, I often have self-injurious behavior and I often self-harm.”
The open conversation about her Asperger’s syndrome seemed to have been therapeutic for Jacobs, reports Free Thought Project, except Thursday morning, things took a turn for the worse. Mesa police received a call about a suicidal woman around 11 a.m. When officers responded to Jacobs’ apartment, they say she stated that she had a knife and was going to hurt herself.
Incredulously, police claims when Jacobs moved toward them with the knife, she caused them to fear for their lives and they both fired their duty weapons.
After they shot Jacobs, an ambulance was called, and she was transported to a hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors were unsuccessful in closing her wounds, and later in the evening, her family received word that she did not make it.
There has been numerous incidents of policemen shooting unarmed people lately, and a society is just not functioning right when its constabulary meant protect us, repeatedly does the opposite. According to Free Thought Project, the majority of time spent by police during training, is devoted to shooting their weapons. Very little time is set aside for training in de-escalation tactics, and sadly, most departments receive no training at all in dealing with the mentally ill.
In a report, researchers discovered that people with an untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during an interaction with police than anyone else, and a minimum of one in four fatal police encounters ends the life of an individual with severe mental illness.
According to Arizona Republic, the two officers who fired their weapons are on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated. Mesa police spokesman Esteban Flores explained that none of the officers wore body cameras because they were not assigned to them, but in 18 months, every Mesa officer will be equipped with them. He also said more crisis-intervention training was planned for the department. Only 130 officers of about 800 on the force have been trained so far.
Jacobs had hoped to transition from female to male, and was known among friends as Keydon Clarke. Keydon had faced numerous obstacles in the process because of his autism-spectrum disorder. Apparently the police had previously encountered Keydon in a similar call.
It appears that even Samson’s ability to protect Keydon from himself wasn’t enough this time, and he was in desperate need of help. Hopefully crisis-intervention training will provide that help in the future. And for Samson, HALO Rescue, the organization where he originally came from, hopes to help in finding a new home for him where his extensive training can benefit someone else.
Youtube video of Danielle Jacobs being comforted by her service dog Samson. Permission to use under Creative Commons.
Featured image screen shot from Youtube video of Danielle Jacobs. Permission to use under Creative Commons.
