Officer injured while responding to mental health crisis call, Atlanta police say
An Atlanta police officer is expected to recover after he was shot while exchanging gunfire with a man having a mental health crisis in a southwest Atlanta neighborhood, according to police.
Around 8:40 a.m., officers responded to a call on the 1400 block of Clark Howard Lane where Michael Gates, 24, was armed and having a mental health crisis, officials said. Gates and police fired shots back and forth, and Officer DeVante Matthews was struck in the arm, officials said.
A woman inside the home had an apparent gunshot wound to her leg, police said. She was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover, according to the news release.
“While the officers were attempting to address the situation, they were firefighting, and during that gunfire, our officer was shot in the arm,” Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference Monday. “He is going to fully recover from those injuries.”
Gates was arrested and will be charged with attempting to kill a police officer, Schierbaum said.
This is at least the third time Matthews has responded to similar calls at this address, the police chief said.
“This is a return location where we’ve been called to multiple times of individuals in a mental health crisis,” Schierbaum said.
At the scene Monday morning, Gates’ sister-in-law Malik White said he may have been off his medication for schizophrenia at the time of the shooting. She said Gates got into an argument with another family member in the house, who called for help.
By the time she and her husband showed up, police had the whole area blocked off, White said.
“Nobody would think that something like this would happen,” White said. “You try to surround them with love and everything to let them know that they’re not alone, to make sure that things like this don’t happen, but you never know what’s going on inside their minds.”
Gates is a registered gun owner, White said, but has never showed any signs of aggression to the family, who was shocked to hear an officer had been shot.
“That’s not like him at all,” she said. “We do want to extend our apologies and hope everything is OK with that officer.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens went to the hospital to greet Matthews when his ambulance arrived, he said at the news conference. He urged county and state elected officials to put more resources into mental health care.
“Time and time again, local police precincts and police officers have to go do the work of mental health and support when we need to have mental hospitals and care for individuals that are experiencing mental crisis and challenges,” Dickens said. “We’re standing outside of a hospital right now where an officer took a bullet in the arm in the shoulder, but this could have been worse.”
Matthews has been with Atlanta police since September of 2019. Dickens said the officer was “shaken up a whole lot and in pain” when he arrived.
“Thank God that the bullet didn’t hit anything major,” the mayor said. “We’re grateful that he’s OK.”