Family Of Newton Man Killed By Police Pushes For Crisis Training

NEWTON, MA — The family of Michael Conlon, who was fatally shot last month by police during a mental health crisis, is calling for more police training.

"Given that 1 in 5 US adults experiences mental illness, 1 in 20 US adults experiences severe mental illness, and 17 percent of youth experience a mental health disorder, we feel training is not only called for, but also necessary," they wrote in a letter to the Boston Globe, citing National Alliance on Mental Illness statistics.

The family acknowledged the work being done in Newton. They called the Newton Police Reform Task Force report; the formation of a community crisis intervention team; and a commitment to training, steps in the right direction.

If the efforts that Newton is now working on had been in effect last month, their 28-year-old son and brother might still be alive, they said.

Newton police officers fatally shot the man who flashed a knife in a candy shop in Newton Highlands. Police reportedly called for a mental health clinician to the apartment but determined the scene was too dangerous for them to talk.

Friends of Conlon described him as a caring, "gentle giant" trying to work through his mental health issues. That shooting, which is still under investigation, caused an outcry in Newton and renewed calls for police reform.

The city last week formed the community crisis intervention team and has discussed not having police respond to calls where there may be a mental health crisis.

Still, generally, there has been no guide for departments to follow on how to handle mental-health crisis incidents until recently.

The police think tank group Police Executive Research Forum came up with a training guide to respond to suicide by cop threats in 2019, reported the Washington Post.

But for cases like Conlon's there are no guide books.

Police training in Newton has focused on de-escalation and trying to help by getting people who need it to a hospital to receive treatment.

"Police are in difficult, complex situations where there's certainly a threat to police safety and citizen safety," Interim Police Chief Howard Mintz said previously.

Police say fatal shootings like the Newton Highlands one, are rare. In Newton, the last fatal police shooting was in 1973, Wicked Local reported.