On Nov. 6, 2008, David Kerstetter was shot and killed inside his home by D.C. police officers. Despite the decision of the U.S. attorney's office not to prosecute the officers involved, Kerstetter's family has filed a notice with the District that it plans to sue the city over their son's death. The family's attorney, Douglas Sparks, notified Mayor Adrian Fenty in a letter dated May 1 [PDF].

We have written about the Kerstetter shooting here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here---not to mention the cover story linked above. The Sparks letter is based on the lawyer's interviews with witnesses, the autopsy report, and an exhaustive scene analysis. It provides the first counter-narrative to law enforcement's public account that Kerstetter had lunged at the officers with a knife---that Officer Frederick Friday shot and killed the Logan Circle resident in self defense. The new evidence appears to point to excessive force.

Read More "Breaking: David Kerstetter’s Family To Sue The District" »

The U.S. Attorney's Office has declined to prosecute Officer Frederick Friday for the shooting death of David Kerstetter in early November of last year. Friday had shot and killed Kerstetter in the Logan Circle resident's bathroom entrance. Friday, and his partner Officer Christian Glynn, had responded to the home after a report of an open door. Kerstetter suffered from a mental illness and had pleaded for the police to leave him alone. The police went in anyway to investigate. Officer Friday claimed Kerstetter came at him with a knife before he opened fire. Kerstetter was shot multiple times.

"We’ve closed it out," wrote  Channing Phillips, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, an e-mail. "After a thorough review of the matter, we declined to bring charges after determining that it was a justifiable shooting.  We have since sent the matter back to MPD for whatever action it deems appropriate."

Phillips went on to state: "There was no evidence that the officer violated the law when he used deadly force in this case.  Beyond that, I can’t comment."

Today, Phillips wrote another e-mail explaining further the office's decision.

Read More "U.S. Attorney’s Office Declines To Prosecute Cop Shooter In Kerstetter Case" »

The other day Carl Kerstetter sent me the above picture of his son David with his medals from his military service which included a tour of duty during the first Gulf War. The picture shows what David was before his mental-illness reared up and took over much of his life. On November 6, he was shot and killed inside his Logan Circle home by D.C. Police Officer Frederick Friday. While the incident is still under investigation, my cover story on the subject raises many questions left unanswered.

I am using this new picture of David as an excuse to complain about the latest stonewalling on the part of the D.C. Police Department's press office.

A month after the shooting, I submitted a FOIA to the D.C. Police Department's spokesperson Traci Hughes. The FOIA was very simple. I asked for e-mails sent from a few police officials to the officials at the Department of Mental Health. My request gave a specific time frame and a specific subject matter to search. But after I sent my FOIA, I heard nothing back from police brass.

I waited. And then I waited some more.

Read More "Obvious Blog Post: D.C. Police Suck At FOIAs" »

Last Monday, At-Large Councilmember Phil Mendelson held one of his Judiciary Committee's oversight hearings on the D.C. Police Department. For the most part, the hearing was routine: right down to the councilmember asking for the investigative materials related to the DeOnte Rawlings shootings. By Mendo's own count, he has asked for the Rawlings report at least three times.

At Monday's hearing, D.C.Police Chief Cathy Lanier and her top brass assured Mendelson that he would have the Rawlings case report on his desk very soon. The expection was for a Friday deadline. In an editorial the day of the deadline, the Post urged the police department to release more information about shootings--including the details on the recent police shooting death of a bus driver. We'd like the records behind the David Kerstetter shooting on November 6. And the Osman Abdullahi shooting in late February. The Post sort of piggybacked on David Simon's own editorial in its newspaper a few weeks ago.

So is it shocking that on Friday, the D.C. Police failed to give Mendelson the DeOnte Rawlings report? Of course not. This is what the department does with such things.

"I think that's still at the factory for redactions," Mendelson joked during a phone interview. It was 5 p.m. on Friday. "This is at least the third time I've asked for the D. Rawlings report."

Read More "D.C. Police Stonewalls Mendo On Police Shootings" »

From the right: David, his father Carl, and his brother Kristopher

A few days ago, I called David Kerstetter's parents in Arizona. I wanted to know what they thought about the D.C. Police Department's sudden change in policy in how it handles mentally-ill residents. Their son had been suffering from mental-illness and was shot and killed by a police officer on Nov. 6 inside his home. The department's investigation into the shooting is "still ongoing," according to its Internal Affairs bureau.

After hearing the awful news on Nov. 6, the Kerstetters immediately flew from their Phoenix-area home to D.C.

They had to identify their son's body in the morgue. They had to bury him in Rock Creek Cemetery. And they went to his apartment to try and make sense of the scene the police left behind. They saw David's blood on his bathroom floor. They saw multiple bullet holes.

The family wanted answers so they asked to meet with Chief Cathy Lanier. They had read her statements in the Washington Post that seemed to quickly exonerate her officers. They never got to talk to her. Instead they got Assistant Chief Peter Newsham, who heads up Internal Affairs.

Read More "Kerstetter’s Parents Disappointed in Lanier" »

D.C. police have decided to overhaul how it responds to mentally ill residents in crisis and police brass have requested training assistance from the Department of Mental Health, says DMH director Stephen T. Baron.

The decision follows two police-shooting deaths in recent months involving mentally ill victims. In November, police shot and killed David Kerstetter in his Logan Circle residence. In late January, an officer killed Osman Abdullahi inside an unlicensed group home near H Street NE.

The department plans to adopt what's called the "Crisis Intervention Team," or "CIT," model, which would train a core group of officers who would be assigned to respond to emergency situations involving the mentally ill, Baron says. Mental-health advocates and police watchdog groups have long pressed the department to adopt such a model.

Read More "D.C. Police to Change Handling of Mental Illness Cases" »

On Sunday, David Simon published an op-ed in the Post railing against the Baltimore Police Department's recent refusal to release the names of cops involved in shootings. (He also pissed on the press---MSM and "citizen bloggers"---for not challenging the department on its no-names policy.

Simon writes:

Read More "Simon Says Name The Cops Involved In Shootings. We Agree." »

During last week's oversight hearing on the Department of Mental Health, there was an opportunity for Councilmember David Catania to fire up his inner prosecutor and start asking some tough questions about what happened on the morning of Nov. 6.

On that morning, two police officers responded to David Kerstetter's Logan Circle home. The two cops knew that Kerstetter was mentally-ill and that he was in crisis. The officers did not quite know what to do. They waited outside his home for roughly a half hour. They called their supervisor. They tried calling Kerstetter's therapist.

The officers should have called DMH's mobile crisis response team. Instead, they went inside Kerstetter's home. Kerstetter ended up being shot multiple times and died. He allegedly came at the officers with a knife and a struggle ensued. [The evidence casts serious doubt on that narrative]. While a standard MOU had yet to be signed between DMH and D.C. Police, the existence of the mobile crisis team was known all the way up to the highest levels of the police department.

So I waited for Kerstetter's name to be invoked. And I waited for Catania to ask some tough questions. Instead, Catania played it safe and gentle.

Read More "Remembering David Kerstetter" »

In early November, D.C. police entered David Kerstetter's Logan Circle home and shot and killed him. Police say Mr. Kerstetter had a knife, that there was a struggle. The crime scene shows no evidence of a struggle. On January 26, Osman Abdullahi was shot and killed by D.C. police after they entered his unlicensed group home at 830 7th Street NE. He had a knife. He used a metal pole as a weapon. He allegedly tried to attack the police. Witnesses say he urged the police to kill him. Abdullahi is the subject of this week's cover story.

What did Kerstetter and Abdullahi have in common? They were both residents in crisis. Both suffered from mental illness. Both had stopped taking their meds.

The police knew Kerstetter. The police did not know Abdullahi.

The New York Police Department recently adopted a new policy. Any time a known mentally-ill person is the subject of a 911 dispatch, the officers rushing to the scene are notified. In a limited way, DMH did know about Abdullahi. In early December, he had called its helpline and requested services. The other men he was living with in that group house--most of them had been in the system at some point in their lives. Not to mention that the house was operated by Mark Spence; DMH knew him very, very well.

How to respond to the mentally ill has been an issue that the D.C. Police Department has refused to address. For years, they have fielded complaints from residents, from the Office of Police Compliants, and done very close to nothing. I wonder how many more times is the department going to put the lives of its officers at risk? How many more residents in crisis are going to have to die before the department starts to seriously look at its policies? And when is the D.C. Council going to hold hearings on the issue?

I had called Chief Lanier about these issues repeatedly in the wake of Kerstetter's death. I e-mailed her directly twice. I called her office. I called her people. She never called me back. Not once. She never felt it necessary to address the circumstances of Kerstetter's death--she had immediately declared the cops involved as probably justified--nor how her department handles residents in crisis. I have seen Lanier tend to grieving families with a grace and skill few officials can match. I find it difficult to imagine that Lanier hasn't thought about this issue in a serious way.

Read More "Two Shootings. Two Deaths. Two cops. Two Mentally Ill Residents" »

This time at 16th and Kalorama. Here's the D.C. Police Department press release:

"At approximately 11:50 a.m., on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, an off-duty Metropolitan Police Department detective reportedly exited his vehicle in the area of the 1600 block of Kalorama Road, NW and was attacked by an apparently deranged man unknown to him. The detective apparently was almost beaten to the point of unconsciousness. At that point, in fear of his life, the detective was forced to draw and discharge his service handgun, striking the suspect once in the abdomen.

The detective has been with the Metropolitan Police Department for 20 years and is currently assigned to the Narcotics and Special Investigations Division. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital and released. The detective, whose name is being withheld at this time, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

The identity of the suspect, who appears to be emotionally disturbed, has not yet been determined. He was transported to an area hospital in police custody on a charge of Aggravated Assault and admitted in stable condition."

This follows the shooting death of David Kerstetter in early November and yesterday morning's shooting death of Osman Abdullahi.

Update 1:36 p.m. I just talked to a police official who knows the detective involved in yesterday's shooting.

"Nothing bad to say about the guy," the official says. "Never in any trouble and does his work and does good work. All he felt was a knock in the head. He had to defend himself. He was very upset about it. He felt very concerned about the person he shot and concerned about his own safety. He had a hell of knot on his head."

“Luckily it worked out where nobody died. He could have been seriously hurt with that blow to the head," the official says.

For another version from an anonymous partial witness, read below in the comments section.

Earlier today, we wrote about the police shooting that took place this morning at 830 7th Street NE. According to news accounts and police statements, D.C. cops were called to the address for a domestic dispute or assault. When they arrived they found a stabbing victim and the alleged perp. The suspect allegedly charged at the police with a pole. The police opened fire on the man and killed him. “He was dead on arrival. It was a fatal shooting," says Traci Hughes, the D.C. police spokesperson.

The incident happened shortly before 11 a.m. While there was some back and forth over whether the home was a group home, it is a rooming house that does include people who are mentally ill. One former resident I interviewed said that he had been referred to the house by a psych facility. "This is supposed to be a community residential facility," said the former resident of his one-time 7th Street home.

Tonight, the home was empty except for two residents. The former resident was on the scene as well. He talked about the man who had been shot and killed by police. He knew him as "Osmond." Police released his name a few hours ago. His name is Osman A. Abdullahi. He was 36. The former resident said that Osman could be delusional, that he talked often about people out to get him. Some of Osman's enemies were from Alaska. "I would say he was schizophrenic," said the resident. "He talked about people coming to get him."

A month ago, he says, he saw Osman laying on his bed. "He had a butcher knife under [the] covers," he recalled. "He was worried about his roommates. He said the roommates were talking in their sleep about him."

This morning, Osman, attacked one of his roommates, a senior citizen, someone the two current residents referred to only as "Lewis." Grant Osborne, 57, a resident at the 7th Street home, says he woke up this morning to Osman standing in the doorway with a knife. He was fuming about his same old problem: People were out to get him. They were coming for him. Osborne didn't understand. The shades were drawn.

Osborne remembers the police breaking down the door. He heard the police ask Osman multiple times to drop his weapon. He says he heard one shot.

Read More "More Details On The Police Shooting @ 7th Street NE" »

This morning D.C. Police were involved in a shooting at a group home on 7th Street NE (Post has it at 7th Street NW and they are wrong). According to WJLA, police say they responded to a call for a domestic incident at the group home. When they arrived, police were allegedly attacked by a man with both a knife and a pole. Officers responded by firing on the man. The man is in critical condition at this time. Police found a stabbing victim inside the group home. There is no word on the condition of either the alleged attacker or the stabbing victim.

Department of Mental Health spokesperson Phyllis Jones says that the address is not a group home operated by DMH or is a facility that has a contract with DMH.

There was a violent incident at a group home roughly a month ago.  On December 14, Donna Gardner robbed and killed Helen May at a Community Connections group home at 5422 Blair Road NE. Gardner, according to court documents, suffocated May with a blanket.

This also may be the second incident involving the police shooting a citizen in crisis. In early November, David Kerstetter was shot and killed by a D.C. police officer.

Just as the Kerstetter incident raised questions about the city's inability to deal with residents in crisis, the May murder brought up issues about how a group home monitors its own.

Update 3:28 p.m. I just got off the phone with Traci Hughes, the D.C. Police Department spokesperson. She says the man who was shot by police has died from his injuries.

"He was dead on arrival. It was a fatal shooting." She goes on to give a better account of what happened. When the police arrived at the 7th Street NE address (it was NE), they immediately came upon a victim with a stab wound to the neck. They then found the person's alleged attacker. He chased police with a pole, Hughes says. A scuffle ensued. "It all happened really quick," Hughes says. Hughes did not yet have the name of the dead man.

Update 4:42 p.m.: Department of Mental Health spokesperson Phyllis Jones: "We are investigating now whether or not people in the house were receiving mental health services." She does not yet know if DMH's mobile crisis response team was called this morning to respond to the incident. Calls to the mobile crisis response team have not be returned. Hughes says she is not sure if DMH responded to the incident or were called.

Read More "Police Involved Shooting @ 7th Street NE" »

The New York Police Department recently announced a significant change in how its rank and file deal with mentally-ill citizens. The NYPD has started an alert system focused on people who are mentally ill. According to a Newsday story:

"The New York Police Department has a new alert system that lets officers know if they are responding to locations where police have previously been sent to deal with the mentally ill, an initiative sparked by the fatal 2007 shooting of a man who confronted officers with a broken wine bottle."

The 2007 incident should appear familiar to District residents. The police recently shot and killed a resident in crisis who allegedly was holding a knife. David Kerstetter was shot and killed on Nov. 6. The events that led up to his death remain under investigation. The D.C. Police Department has steadfastly insisted that it doesn't need to change how it deals with mentally-ill residents.

The NYPD thought differently.

Read More "NYC Police Change How They Confront Mentally-Ill Residents" »

If you examine the police-involved shooting death of David Kerstetter, you have to look closely at one key question: Were the two cops justified in entering Kerstetter's Logan Circle condo.

With that in mind, I asked a number of experts for their opinions. Before I get to their answers, first some background.

On the morning of November 6, the police got a call for an open door at Kerstetter's address. Kerstetter's door appeared to be bashed in. It had also been left ajar.

One of the cops--Master Patrol Officer Frederick Friday--knew some of Kerstetter's mental-health history. He and his partner had also been filled in by an employee of the condo complex and a concerned neighbor. But when the employee called up to Kerstetter that morning to see if he could come inside, Kerstetter refused.

After more back and forth, Kerstetter again rejected the employee's plea. He argued that he was the police. Maybe Kerstetter knew the police were standing outside his home. We will never know.

I still wonder if the police had a right to even enter his home.

With that question in mind, I sent the story around to various legal experts and went through it with a police veteran.

Read More "Debate: Should The Police Have Entered David Kerstetter’s Home?" »

On November 6, two D.C. Police Department officers shot and killed David Kerstetter. The two cops knew that he was mentally-ill, that he was probably in crisis. The police department says that Kerstetter had a knife, that there was a struggle, that the officers had to shoot. We recently published a full story on the incident.

In October, the Department of Mental Health started up its Mobile Crisis Services. This office's main function is to take calls from police, concerned families, and mental-health providers and attend to residents in crisis---to attend to people very much like David Kerstetter.

On Nov. 1, the mobile crisis response teams were fully staffed and operational. Five days later, Kerstetter was shot and killed by police.

Officer Frederick Friday, who shot Kerstetter, told Washington City Paper he tried to call the 38-year-old's psychiatrist and others before entering Kerstetter's apartment. He failed to reach anyone. According to DMH officials, Friday did not call Mobile Crisis.

Police brass were well aware of this new mobile-crisis unit. It had been planned for more than a year; one official even takes credit for its creation. But at the time of Kerstetter's death, a Memorandum of Understanding had yet to be signed between DMH and the D.C. Police Department.

DMH sent the memorandum to police the day after Kerstetter's death. Two weeks later, on November 21, it was signed by all parties. The memo outlines clear protocols on what the police should do when facing a resident in crisis:

"The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding shall be to ensure the coordination between DMH and MPD in responding to individuals in need of mobile crisis services. The overall objective of the mobile crisis service is to ensure quick access to services and prevent serious injuries that can occur during a mental health emergency..."

Read More "D.C. Police Sign MOU With Department Of Mental Health" »