Verilu Infante 
PHARR – After a near fatal shooting, how Law Enforcement deals with cases involving people with a mental illness has become more important than ever.
Pharr Chief of Police, Andey Harvey, shares that police officers responded to a call about an 18-year old male acting violently. The male’s mother claims he was mentally ill.
The man was holding a BB gun when the police arrived on the scene and when asked to put down what looked like a rifle, he did not comply. This led to the male being shot.
UTRGV Criminal Justice professor, Mark Dantzker says that there is no way for a police officer to be ready for situations involving people with mental illness. According to Dantzker, police officers need more than 40 hours of training on how to properly handle situations involving people with mental illness.
Dantzker says, “The best way to improve that is to have that kind of training be done by people who have been out there as police officers but also have mental health training.”
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