Maybe I’ve watched too many cop shows on TV, but I’d like to believe that four sheriff’s deputies – two of them members of the agency’s specially trained SWAT team – could physically subdue a mentally unstable man armed only with scissors without resorting to lethal force.
That was my initial thought when Sheriff Eric Flowers explained during a next-day news conference what happened March 26 on a busy Saturday night in the Emergency Room at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.
Upon further reflection, though, I realized that attempting to disarm an emotionally distressed and suddenly dangerous patient wielding what Flowers described as a “pair of large scissors” could have put the deputies’ safety at risk. Not every cop is Walker, Texas Ranger.
But did Zachary Taylor Anderson – the 29-year-old man whose family members brought him to the hospital on March 25 because he was suicidal and already had tried to harm himself – really need to be shot dead?
Or to be more specific: Why didn’t the deputies reach for their tasers instead of their guns?
Those are among the troubling questions that remained unanswered as the week began, nearly a month after the tragic incident at the hospital.
Flowers said at his news conference that Anderson “died right away,” but he didn’t know how many shots were fired or how many times the man was hit. And although footage from one of the deputies’ body cameras was released to the public, it did not include any video of the actual shooting.
The Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Monday that an autopsy was performed on Anderson, but a spokesperson said the report won’t be available for several weeks.
Flowers told the media gathering that he would provide more comprehensive video from the hospital’s cameras, but as of Monday, it had not yet been made available.
“We still are unable to release the hospital footage,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Debbie Carson wrote in a text message late last week. “Hospital administration is contesting its release, which is causing the hold up.”
Asked if the Sheriff’s Office could provide an update on its investigation into the incident, she replied, “Nothing new at this time.”
No new details, such as the size of the scissors and how close Anderson was to the deputies when they fired. No new video, including footage from the body cams worn by the other deputies, particularly the two SWAT team members who fired the shots. No new answers to questions that continue to be asked.
Especially this: Why was this incident allowed to happen?
As Flowers tells it: Anderson was at the hospital under Florida’s Baker Act law, which allows people with mental illness to be held – voluntarily or involuntarily – in a mental-health facility for up to 72 hours if they are deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others.
Flowers said Anderson “attempted to hang himself” and had multiple lacerations on his wrists and legs.
The hospital staff attempted to transfer Anderson to a mental health facility, but for some still-unexplained reason, he was denied admission and returned to the hospital’s ER.
Hospital officials issued a statement after the shooting, acknowledging that a patient “behaved in a threatening manner which resulted in the use of deadly force by deputies who were already on site,” then adding the incident was under investigation and they were cooperating with the Sheriff’s Office.
You can be sure lawyers will be exploring the botched process that resulted in Anderson being treated on a gurney in the hallway of the overcrowded ER for what Flowers said was “a day and a half.”
They’ll also want to look into the reasons Anderson, who was deemed a threat to himself and others, wasn’t secured to the gurney; how and why he had access to scissors; and whether the deputies working a security detail in the ER should’ve been monitoring his behavior.
Flowers said during his news conference, in fact, that Baker Act patients “want to flee, want to get away,” and that it “happens all the time.”
If Anderson had been secured to the gurney, he could not have jumped up, grabbed the scissors and run around the ER area, prompting the deputies to respond to the commotion.
He could not have turned toward the deputies and come at them in a narrow hallway while holding the scissors in his raised hand, posing a threat to their safety and that of the nearby hospital staffers.
He would not have been shot.
Flowers said the entire episode lasted only five seconds and praised his deputies’ response, which he claimed was the result of their training and prevented Anderson from harming anyone else in the area.
“I’m very proud of our team,” Flowers said. “Our guys did a great job. They were able to stop the threat and not hurt any of the hospital staff.”
He said Anderson’s aggressive behavior and close proximity to the deputies in tight quarters left them “no choice but to do what they did,” explaining that “in a split-second,” the circumstances changed from a Baker Act patient running loose to an unstable man threatening them with scissors.
Flowers described the incident as “suicide by cop,” saying, “Clearly, this man was intent on ending his life.”
But was he?
Or was he merely trying to escape?
Even if Anderson, in his severely disturbed state of mind, was trying to provoke the deputies, there’s no way Flowers can say with any degree of certainty that the man truly wanted to die.
If Anderson could’ve gotten the help he needed – the care his family sought when he was brought to the hospital – would he still have wanted to commit suicide?
Look, I understand that the deputies who shot him were placed in a difficult, high-pressure situation. I appreciate they had to make a life-or-death decision in a matter of seconds.
I’d just like to know why they chose death.
Surely, I’m not the only one wondering why the deputies didn’t first reach for their Tasers, knowing they were confronting one troubled patient armed only with scissors.
And I can’t be the only one who finds it more than a little curious Flowers never mentioned the Taser option.
There might be a credible explanation. It’s entirely possible the Sheriff’s Office’s in-house investigation, as well as the expected grand jury proceeding, will show that the deputies who fatally shot Anderson responded exactly as they were trained to do.
At this moment, though, there’s too much about what happened on that busy Saturday night in the ER that doesn’t feel right – and it won’t until all the questions are answered.
Maybe it has something to do with all those cop shows I’ve watched on TV, where you never see four police officers cornered by one mentally unstable guy with scissors.
But I keep thinking Anderson died because somebody screwed up.
