By Bill Carey
EMS1
WASHINGTON — A mental health crisis call ended with a fatal officer-involved shooting after the patient assaulted a firefighter/paramedic during transport to a hospital.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said first responders were dispatched to a crisis call. One of the responding police officers was a trained crisis intervention officer and auxiliary negotiator. After speaking with police for nearly two hours, the man agreed to go to an area hospital, WUSA reported.
While en route to the hospital, the man assaulted a firefighter/paramedic. The driver pulled over and the man lunged out of the back of the ambulance and onto the street.
Smith said officers following the ambulance attempted to bring the man into custody using commands and less-lethal means.
The man assaulted a police officer, ran into traffic and crawled under a truck. He emerged with a metal object in his hands. Officers gave the man several commands to drop what was in his hands and he did not comply.
The man moved toward officers and one officer fired at the man.
The ambulance crew immediately began to treat the man but he later died from the gunshot wound.
There was no additional information on any injury to the firefighter/paramedic that was in the ambulance. Smith said that when individuals in mental health crisis calls agree to go to the hospital, officers do not ride in the ambulance but follow it.