City Desk » Osman Abdullahi

Jared Loughner Story Is A Sad Cliche

Jason Cherkis — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:49:46 +0000

Today, the Washington Post chronicled Jared Loughner's journey from IHOP-loving Normal to alleged Killer. The AP wrote its own Loughner bio with shitty poetry. These stories were your typical five-days-since-Tragedy stockpile of reporting, fast-paced Dateline-esque narrative, and limp attempts at explaining mental illness (From WaPo: "And then Jared Loughner slipped into a world of fantasy that was no online game.")

We've all read this story before. As a reporter, I've done this story many, many times over the years.

There was the case of Osman Abdullahi.

There was the case of David Kerstetter.

There was the case of Seung Hui Cho. And before Cho, William Charles Morva attempted to terrorize the Virginia Tech campus.

And there was the case of Kyle Hulbert.

These were just the young men I wrote about since 2001. Young men who suffered through mental breakdowns or moments of crisis without adequate government interventions, who ran out of meds, who ended up in an unregulated group home, who got ignored. Kerstetter didn't hurt anybody before he was killed by police in his own bathroom. These are just the infamous cases of alleged police breakdowns, murder, and massacre. What about the kids no one reads about?

A new study by the Rand corporation found that 60 percent of D.C. adults diagnosed with depression and enrolled in a medicaid managed care organization did not receive treatment. That same study found that 72 percent of D.C. children with depression also went without treatment. Another recent report noted that even kids who enter into our juvenile-justice system do receive adequate mental-health treatment.

What are we going to do about those kids?

*file photo by Darrow Montgomery.

D.C. Police Stonewalls Mendo On Police Shootings

Jason Cherkis — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:49:18 +0000

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."

Mendelson believes getting these force-investigation shooting reports is important. "If the executive branch does not want accountability and transparency then they will ignore the legislature's request," Mendelson says. "I agree with what [the Post] wrote. How do we do oversight if they withhold information? Of course that raises the question: Is there something they are trying to hide? Maybe it's nothing but it certainly provokes the question. Anything controversial like that sunshine is most helpful."

D.C. Police to Change Handling of Mental Illness Cases

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:43:36 +0000

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.

The program was developed in the late '80s by the Memphis Police Department after one of their officers shot and killed a knife-wielding mentally ill man. The model has since been replicated by police departments across the country from Georgia to Houston to Seattle.

"We've begun planning training" for the officers, says Baron, who was approached by police brass three weeks ago. He says that it will take a couple years to get the program fully staffed. "We hope to start in the next few months with the first training class."

"They came to me," Baron says of the police department.

For years, the department resisted making the switch to a specialized unit. Former Chief Charles Ramsey and current Chief Cathy Lanier had rebuffed earlier lobbying efforts. When asked to explain the sudden change, Lanier said: "It's my decision. I think it was time."

Lanier says the move had nothing to do with the Kerstetter incident. The change came about, she insists, because the department has seen an increase in officers and resources. [This is news to FOP head Kristopher Baumann, who says the last time he checked, the department appeared to be behind in their staff goals. The police press office says they have approximately 4,000 officers.]

But Assistant Chief Peter Newsham, who runs the department's Internal Affairs Unit, says the shootings did prompt officials to think about the CIT model. "Obviously, it's a good idea," Newsham says. "There's been some concern recently about how we deal with people [who have] mental illness....The recent shootings have definitely drawn attention to the issue."

This "good idea" wasn't deemed so by the police department for more than a decade. Since the early '90s, the department had been lobbied by a group defense attorneys and mental-health advocates to adopt the CIT model. "There was a strong recommendation," recalls Dr. Robert Keisling of Pathways to Housing. "I remember going to the meetings in the early 1990s. It's been over 15 years of efforts."

Mary Ann Luby, a longtime outreach worker with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, also urged the police to change. "We have an ongoing struggle with the police and the way that they sometimes approach people that are mentally ill," Luby says. "We've talked about it for a very long time.... When Ramsey was here, we tried to introduce it to him. This is going back six or seven years ago."

The Office of Police Complaints had been lobbying for the CIT model since issuing a report in 2006. The agency's efforts had been ignored despite the mounting anecdotal evidence that the department had a problem.

"I am pleased that the MPD for whatever reason is moving forward with the Crisis Intervention Team," says Philip Eure, OPC's executive direstor. "The CIT concept has been tried and tested around the country. There is every reason to believe that D.C. will benefit from it just like Memphis and other cities around the country."

The CIT model may have come in handy on the morning of Nov. 6. Two officers responded to a call for an open door at Kerstetter's Logan Circle apartment. Once they arrived, they were briefed on Kerstetter's deteriorating mental-health condition by a neighbor. One of the officers, Frederick Friday, told Washington City Paper that he made several calls seeking assistance. He says that he tried calling Kerstetter's therapist.

Kerstetter told the officers to not enter his home. After waiting around outside, Friday and his partner Christian Glynn, decided to enter Kerstetter's condo. They found Kerstetter holding a knife and a struggle ensued, according to a police press release.

Friday shot Kerstetter multiple times. Kerstetter ended up in his bathroom. [A review of the pictures from the scene show nothing out of place, nothing that would indicate a struggle.]

Kerstetter died from his wounds. Friday says he acted in self-defense. The shooting is still under investigation.

When questioned about the case yesterday, Lanier defended the officers' actions. "They followed policy," she said.

Lanier added that they had to make a "split-second decision." But when asked about the 30 minutes the officers waited outside Kerstetter's apartment, she had added a new wrinkle to the boilerplate: "So sometimes they have to make a 30-minute decision."

Simon Says Name The Cops Involved In Shootings. We Agree.

Jason Cherkis — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:23:48 +0000

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:

"In January, a new Baltimore police spokesman — a refugee from the Bush administration — came to the incredible conclusion that the city department could decide not to identify those police officers who shot or even killed someone. (Similar policies have been established by several other police departments in the United States as well as by the FBI.)

Anthony Guglielmi, the department's director of public affairs, informed Baltimoreans that, henceforth, Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld would decide unilaterally whether citizens would know the names of those who had used their weapons on civilians. If they did something illegal or unwarranted — in the commissioner's judgment — they would be named. Otherwise, the Baltimore department would no longer regard the decision to shoot someone as the sort of responsibility for which officers might be required to stand before the public./blockquote>

I sympathize with Simon on this one. The D.C. police department not only refuses to release the names of officers involved in shootings, its spokesperson doesn't quite understand the need for such openness.

I was able to get the names of the cops in the David Kerstetter shooting only by talking to friendly officers and digging up the officers' phone numbers. [The Post never bothered to even name Kerstetter in its short account of the shooting]. The department still wouldn't confirm the names even after I interviewed the cops. A few months later, an officer shot and killed Osman Abdullahi, and an off-duty cop shot another mentally ill man the next day.

The D.C. police investigation into the DeOnte Rawlings shooting has yet to be made public. The head of the police union, Kristopher Baumann says the Rawlings case should be made public. He blames Mayor Adrian M. Fenty for keeping the investigation under wraps.

"This is a decision the mayor is making," Baumann says. "If they did start making those investigations public, I would be fascinated to see how that would go." He's open to the idea but with one important caveat: make all cases public.

"You can't have one standard for police officers and one for high-ranking officials," he says. "That would be one of the issues....If you do it for the Rawlings case, it has to be done for all cases and all situations. It has to be one standard. That standard has to be across the board.”

But Baumann is against naming names. I will have more posts on this issue later today.

Photo of David Kerstetter provided by the Kerstetter family

Mark Spence Goes To Court

Jason Cherkis — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:18:11 +0000

As I documented in this week's cover story on Osman Abdullahi's death, the problems at 830 7th Street NE were vast. Abdullahi was left without meds in a house without heat and very little food. There was the thinnest of safety nets for Abdullahi and his fellow tenants. After the shooting, the building's manager Mark Spence simply shut the home down. Without the proper notification or going through Landlord-Tenant Court, he kicked everyone out and locked the doors. Last Friday, I reported that city officials still aren't sure where the tenants ended up.

An unlicensed home means simply that the tenants are left in particularly vulnerable positions. But one former Spence tenant did fight his eviction. He took Spence to court.

After the Department of Mental Health in 2003 ordered its staff and service providers from ever placing its people in Spence's homes, Spence continued to operate unabated. One tenant took him to court.

In December 2003, Lawrence Winston filed a wrongful eviction civil suit against Spence. He sought a temporary restraining order and $6,000 in damages. He alleged that Spence had not only evicted him without notice but took all of his belongings (TV, sofa, other electronic equipment).

Winston wrote to the court: "I don't know where anything is. I have no food, clothes, or place to stay for me or my son."

A Superior Court judge granted Winston the restraining order and then extended it–ordering Spence to allow Winston to return to his apartment and give him back his possessions. The judge wrote that Spence "is not to harass plaintiff in any manner" and that Winston's personal property must be returned by January 30, 2004.

I asked Spence about Winston. He says Winston was referred to him by a church. He claims that Winston didn't pay rent. "He's a get-over artist," Spence says. "I didn't have any of his stuff. I never had his stuff. He did that to just say something to go down to civil court. He didn't have nothing but a bag when he came [to me]....He's a con artist. I felt played."

On June 14, 2004, Winston filed a motion against Spence for contempt. Spence still hadn't returned his things. On August 6, a judge found Spence in contempt.

A few years later, a landlord sued Spence for more than $7,000 in unpaid rent over an apartment he had given to a mentally-ill man. The landlord refused comment for this piece (they had another case against Spence as well).

"They no longer wanted those clients in the apartment," Spence says. "They wanted to remove the clients so that's what they did. They were paid up in full. That was just their way of going to court."

Weekend in Review

Erik Wemple — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:54:32 +0000

Big story this weekend was the weather (and not the Pro Bowl)—it felt like wintertime in D.C. for the first time in weeks. January, according to reports, was colder than usual, and February started out likewise. Yet somehow and for some reason, as the temps tilted toward 60 degrees on Sunday, people didn't get the memo and could be found in large, bulky coats. What's up with that. I am going to suggest that there's a certain demographic out there that doesn't watch the news, pick up a newspaper, or check out the Internet–these folks just assume that since it's winter, it's cold. No other possible explanation for it.

On news fronts, it's basically the economic crisis, and many things that don't matter nearly as much. Let's stick to the latter here.

Comments from the heroic pilot of that Hudson River-landing plane.

Can't believe that in the year 2009, they're still playing the Pro Bowl.

Well, there's a multiagency investigation of the cancellation of the Veterans Presidential Inaugural Ball, so how did Dionne Warwick's bash skate free?

What happened to a 36-year-old with paranoid delusions in a city with a patchwork system of care for the mentally ill?

WashTimes has the skinny on the unpresidentialness of "doom" rhetoric.

WaPo on the rise of homelessness among schools population.

Where Did The Residents Of 830 7th Street NE Go?

Jason Cherkis — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:20:15 +0000

On January 26, Osman Abdullahi was gunned down by D.C. Police after an altercation inside his unlicensed group home. The home, located at 830 7th Street NE, had no heat, very little food, and no supervision. Abdullahi wasn't taking his medication at the time. The home's manager Mark Spence has a long history with troubled group homes. We published a cover story on Spence's activities and Abdullahi this week.

Within a few days of the incident, Spence effectively shutdown his group home. The lights were turned off. The doors were locked. A mysterious notice to "correct" or "vacate" was placed on the door.

The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs told me they have no record of posting such a notice on the door of 830 7th Street NE. The notice cited overcrowding as an issue. Spence had 30 days to correct the overcrowding problem or face some kind of fine or eviction. I saw the notice. The notice did not have DCRA letterhead or a name and phone number of an inspector who made the determination.

I asked Spence about the note. He told me the building's owner could have posted it. He added that he had cleared everyone out of the building. This is a clear violation of landlord-tenant regs. No one stopped Mr. Spence from ignoring the law.

The Office of the D.C. Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program has had frequent encounters with Spence’s work, dating to 1999, according to Jerry Kasunic, the office’s current director.

Today, Kasunic met with the Department of Mental Health. He had one question for the department: Where did the residents of 830 7th Street NE go?

The department's answer: We don't know.

Kasunic sounded frustrated on the phone. "I don't know where they went," he says. "I want to make sure they have support services that they need whether its medical, psychiatric, any kind of coaching and counseling."

Kasunic had just gotten back from his meeting with DMH officials. He says he hopes to have information on the residents within a week or two.

"The longer the people are without the proper support systems the better the chance that someone is going to relapse and end up in an ER room or a psych unit," Kasunic says. "They need the proper case management."

If Spence was a licensed provider, the residents of 830 7th Street would have been given a 21-day notice of eviction, counseling before the 21-day notice, and a proper transfer to another facility or group home.

Instead, the residents were just dumped. “No one is stepping up to the plate to find these people,” Kasunic says.

Laurel, Maryland, January 30

Darrow Montgomery — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:42:51 +0000

Burying Osman Abdullahi. His life and its unfortunate end are the subject of this week's cover story.

Two Shootings. Two Deaths. Two cops. Two Mentally Ill Residents

Jason Cherkis — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:15:13 +0000

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.

I did call Assistant Chief Peter Newsham, who runs the Internal Affairs Bureau. I asked him about policy changes and the NYPD's new warning system.

"It would be very helpful to know what the officers are walking into," Newsham said. "We are definitely going to take a look at that...That's something we'll definitely look at."

But what will the D.C. Police do about it?

*Undated photo of Abdullahi was provided by his family.

This Is What a Group House Looks Like

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:55:48 +0000

Look at it. Go ahead and stare. This is what a District group house looks like. This is the scene from the Jan. 26th police shooting death of Osman Abdullahi. He had been suffering from schizophrenia. He had been living at this group home, located at 830 7th St. NE, since Nov. 1.

The Department of Mental Health has repeatedly stressed that this was not technically a group home. It was not one of their own. It had not been licensed as one. It didn't get a handy acronym that I won't even bother explaining. It didn't have the proper paperwork. But it was a group home. Many of its tenants were mentally ill. [All five I talked to or researched had been in the system]. All were unsupervised. This house had a history, a backstory. Abdullahi had a story, too. We first wrote about the incident later that night. I get to expand on my reporting for this week's cover.

While DMH gets to breathe a sigh of relief that this wasn't one of their own homes, its people were still inside. Its people were living without food, without heat, without meds, without supervision. So take a look at where some D.C. residents were living. Who's going to prevent this from happening again? Who's going to make sure there's someone competent watching over our most vulnerable? While DMH is investigating the house, the big question is: Did any of their people ever do a site visit, ever actually come to the house?

More pictures after the jump.

The kitchen sink as of January 27.

The freezer.

The cupboards.

I will be posting more pictures of 830 7th St. NE throughout the week.

Another Police Shooting Of A Mentally-Ill Man

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:47:38 +0000

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.

More Details On The Police Shooting @ 7th Street NE

Jason Cherkis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:35:54 +0000

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.

Osborne is speaking from his stoop. He is dressed in sweat pants, a sweat shirt and jacket. He is wearing a knitcap. It is 6:15 p.m. Soon two members of the Department of Mental Health's mobile crisis unit show up at the stoop. They offer to talk to Osborne and another resident. They want to talk inside where it is supposedly warm.

When they open the door to 730 8th Street, it is immediately apparent that inside will not work. There is blood in the foyer. It has pooled and congealed in spots. In one area, there is a small squiggle of bloody flesh.

Blood splatter or blood smears are on the lower right corner of the wall. Mobile Crisis calls it in. They want to see about getting this cleaned up. "There's still blood on the floor," one tells the authorities. "Nobody's here except for the people that live here."

"There is blood in the hallway," she tells the police during a second call. "This is a biohazard." It is 6:45 p.m. Police say they are done with the crime scene. It isn't their job to clean up the blood. A police cruiser soon passes by. And then another.

The carpet is drenched with blood and fluids. It's not quite a carpet. It looks like the foam layer that comes with the carpet. The foam is duct taped to the floor and stairs. In the kitchen, the sink is stopped up. The garbage disposal switch does nothing. Also, Osborne says one of the bathrooms is "messed up."

The former resident says he had to move because his bedroom had a mold problem. The former resident eventually leaves. He says he is headed for a niece's house in Maryland. He carries with him a loaded down garbage bag. If anyone needs him, he says, he will be at a local psych facility in the morning.

It is freezing inside 830 7th Street. Osborne says sometimes the heat comes on. Sometimes it's just cold. Upstairs there is a blood stain in the hall.

There is no one there to supervise the men. There is no one there to make sure the heat works, to clean up all the blood on the floor. Mobile Crisis makes a call to the proprietor–Mark Spence of an organization called "Hope Finders." Mobile Crisis has to leave a message.The men say they haven't seen him in a while.

I later reach Spence. He says that he has yet to visit his property since the shooting death of Osmond. "I wasn't down there," he says. "I know all about it. I really don't have any comment."

Osborne says he has been living at 830 7th Street for no more than a year. When he first arrived, he says, "everything was brand new." He doesn't know how many group homes or rooming houses he's lived in. There was one in Baltimore. There was a stay at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington. Now, there is uncertainty.

The two employees from Mobile Crisis do not think it is a good idea for Osborne to stay at 830 7th Street. They bring up the blood.

Osborne is prepared to leave, he says. He agrees to get in their van and find other shelter options. He tells one of the employees that he left all of his clothes and belongings in his first-floor room. But that he doesn't care. The employee assures him that he can get more clothes. All he carries with him to the van is a small, half-filled plastic bag. His nose is running. His sweat pants have seen better days. But his tan work boots look new. Osborne takes a seat in the far back corner of the van.

Osborne just stares out the window and takes in the car's heat.

There is one resident left at 830 7th Street NE. He tells mobile crisis that he doesn't want to go with them in their van. There is not much else mobile crisis can do. The resident quietly closes the door, walks back across the blood, and on inside.