Mt. Pleasant Residents Seek Answers in Police Shooting

Last night, fifty residents gathered outside the Irving Street building where Jean Louis was shot by police last month.

Dean Sanchez shared a building with Jean E. Louis for years, and always knew he was a little off. But when police stormed his Mt. Pleasant building last month and shot Louis after a protracted stand-off, Sanchez couldn't help but wonder if the deadly force was really necessary to deal with a man known to his neighbors as mentally distressed, though not violent.

"Why wasn't tear gas used? All of this technology that we have, tasers and tear gas, why wasn't that used? Somebody has to be accountable for his death," said Sanchez, speaking to a crowd of 50 people that gathered for a vigil outside the Irving Street building last night.

It was a month ago yesterday that a small army of police officers locked down a swath of Mt. Pleasant to respond to concerns about Louis, who had attacked a police officer that had entered his apartment alongside workers from the city's Department of Mental Health. Four hours later, police stormed the apartment, shooting and killing the 55-year-old.

Now, Mt. Pleasant neighbors, elected officials and activists are looking for answers.

During the vigil, where residents held candles and prayed for Louis, the overriding concern was that police responded too aggressively, echoing complaints dating back to 2008 that the District's police officers aren't adequately trained to deal with mentally distressed residents.

Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said he had reached the "inescapable conclusion" that other means should have been used to resolve the standoff.

"A single man who was facing his own demons brought into the neighborhood dozens of armed men. This type of police force should never be brought to bear on someone so challenged," said Graham, who added that he is waiting on the police investigation into the matter and has asked Chief Cathy Lanier to review police policies on the matter.

For Terry Lynch, Executive Director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations and a Mt. Pleasant resident, an internal review simply isn't enough.

"I'm not sure the [police report] will be sufficient. I don't think having police themselves do the review is adequate. There needs to be a federal review. We may need an outside agency, because I can't expect the police to police themselves," he said.

"One of the concerns here is whether this has become a pattern...clearly things have to change. The hope is that we can get best practices -- how do we interact with mentally ill and/or immigrants who are doubly disadvantaged language-wise, economic-wise."

This morning on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, Lanier defended the police's response, saying that the department was expanding training to deal with mentally distressed residents.

"We have significantly increased our training for dealing with mental health consumers. We're one of the few police departments in the country that has this program, and we're constantly expanding it," Lanier said, referring to Crisis Intervention Officers (CIOs), police trained by the Department of Mental Health to best deal with situations like the barricade.

Regardless, residents at the vigil remained skeptical that such an overwhelming show of force was necessary, and questioned why police couldn't have used non-lethal force to subdue Louis. They planned on asking Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, for a hearing on the issue. According to Mendelson's office, no hearing is yet planned, but he's "monitoring the issue very closely."