After police shot a suicidal Glen Burnie teen last weekend, many people wondered why the department?s much-touted mobile crisis team hadn?t gotten involved in the incident before it reached its fatal conclusion.
Anne Arundel County police officials acknowledged from the beginning that the crisis team wasn?t at the scene to talk to 18-year-old Justin Fisher. But they said they were still investigating whether the team had been called Sunday morning.
Katherine Rovendro, director of the Anne Arundel County Crisis Response System, told The Examiner on Thursday that the unit wasn?t called until after Fisher was shot five times by four police officers.
She declined to provide details about who was counseled or what type of help was given because of confidentiality restrictions.
Rovendro said there is no way to determine if the team could have helped Fisher early Sunday.
The mobile crisis team consists of licensed social workers and psychologists who are available to help some of the troubled people that police encounter in the community.
According to policy, the team is to be called to assist police with people who are exhibiting strange or bizarre behavior, victims of traumatic events and people who have “suicidal thoughts without attempts.”
For the sake of their own safety, they are not, according to policy, to respond to “a person who has a weapon or is immediately involved in a violent or assaultive act.”
Fisher was wielding a 9-inch pair of scissors and was threatening to harm himself in the minutes before the shooting, when he reportedly charged at police officers with the scissors.
In 2005, the team responded to 1,575 calls,Rovendro said.
The mobile crisis team operates 16 hours a day, from 9:30 to 12:30 a.m Monday through Friday and 9:30 to 2: 00 a.m. on weekends. According to Rovendro, “mental health professionals are on call when the MCT is off-duty and available for face-to-face interventions.”
