Man Having 'Mental Breakdown' Taken Into Police Custody: NYPD

COLLEGE POINT, QUEENS — Police responded to a man having a "mental breakdown" at a northeast Queens house Wednesday morning, NYPD officials said.

The 57-year-old man was inside a house at the corner of 125th Street and 5th Avenue in College Point when the incident happened, according to the NYPD.

Police rushed to the house at about 10:48 a.m., and over an hour later the person was "taken into custody," a spokesperson told Patch. The man is now receiving treatment at a hospital in Jamaica, police said.

The NYPD would not say which units were sent to College Point or if the man posed a threat to himself or others.

"Appropriate NYPD personnel responded to the call for assistance," a spokesperson said.

Last year, the city launched a pilot program sending mental health teams to respond to mental health-related 911 calls instead of the police.

The program, which was launched after a series of incidents in which NYPD officers fatally shot New Yorkers in the midst of mental health crises, fell short of its goal, with teams of cops and EMTs still responding to most mental health-related 911 calls, The City reported.

Susan Herman, director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health, however, told The City the program helped people in the midst of crisis receive better-suited support.

Half of the people helped by the mental health teams in the first month of the pilot program were taken to community-based care centers or offered support at the scene, data shows.

By contrast, most mental-health related calls handled by the cops end up with people being taken to jail or dropped at the ER (like the man in College Point), which are less suitable places for people in the midst of mental health crises, The City reported.

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