The widely reported case of a 27-year-old naked and unarmed veteran shot dead by an Atlanta-area police officer on Monday is raising questions about how law enforcement is trained to deal with suspects who may be suffering from mental illness.
It also underscores an alarming statistic: The mentally ill are responsible for only 4% of all violent crimes committed, but they make up more than half of all suspects shot and killed by police, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center.
The explanation for this high figure is twofold: police are encountering more mentally ill people than ever before, and they are not properly trained on how to deal with their often erratic and unpredictable behavior.
Anthony Hill, who claimed to be bipolar in various Facebook and Twitter posts written in the days and hours leading up to his death, was lying face down on the ground — completely naked and mumbling incoherently — at his apartment complex outside Atlanta when an officer approached him in response to a 911 call from worried neighbors.
[For more of this story, written by Natasha Bertrand, go to http://www.businessinsider.com...-mentally-ill-2015-3]
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