Training records reveal the officer who shot an unarmed, bipolar veteran received 40 hours of instruction in dealing with mentally ill suspects.
Mental health advocates say that’s fairly standard, even though the DeKalb County Police Department, which has employed Officer Robert Olsen for seven years, typically lags behind other metro Atlanta agencies
Olsen is on paid leave while the GBI investigates whether he was justified in using lethal force against 27-year-old Anthony Hill. Monday’s fatal shooting was the second in a little more than two months by a DeKalb officer.
According to records obtained from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, Olsen completed nearly 2,000 hours of training since 2008. Three of the last four classes he completed dealt with deadly force options and Taser usage.
Attorney Christopher Chestnut, retained by the victim’s family, said Wednesday the officer did not need to use a firearm to restrain or subdue Hill.
“Lethal force was not warranted,” Chestnut said. “Our officers can’t be so quick to fatally shoot.”
Olsen — who has no known sanctions, according to P.O.S.T. — was the only officer to respond to a 911 call reporting “a male acting deranged, knocking on doors and crawling around on the ground naked,” according to DeKalb Public Safety Director Cedric Alexander.
The call was dispatched as a suspicious person, said DeKalb Police Capt. Steven Fore. That could be a key distinction in the investigation; if dispatched as a report of a psychotic or mentally disturbed person, the officer would know that criminal activity was not suspected.
But Hill’s behavior was clearly hallucinatory, said Pat Strode, the program administrator for the Georgia chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The week-long Crisis Intervention Team class, which Olsen completed in 2009, trains officers to recognize signs of behavioral problems caused by mental illness or substance abuse. Officers are encouraged to engage people in conversation, asking their names or other personal details – “trying to ground them in reality as quickly as you can,” without resorting to lethal force, said Strode.
“This was clearly a gross error in judgment,” Chestnut said. Hill “threatened no one. There was no reason to suspect he was a danger to anyone’s life or property.”
Chestnut downplayed suggestions that race — Hill was African-American, while the officer is white — played a factor in the shooting.
Hill’s “psychological challenges” followed his discharge from military service, according to Chestnut.
“We think they arose out of his service in Afghanistan,” he said.
Alexander said Olsen was threatened by Hill, who ignored the officer’s commands to stop. But it’s unclear how close the unarmed man was to Olsen when the officer fired two fatal gunshots into his chest. Whether Olsen should’ve deployed his Taser instead is a question for GBI investigators, Alexander said.
“The point of a Taser is to prevent the use of lethal force,” Chestnut said. “This was in the daylight. There should’ve been no question that the officer was no in immediate danger.”
Hill’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday in his native South Carolina. Family members have, thus far, declined comment.
Social justice advocates have rallied behind Hill, saying he is just the latest victim of overzealous cops. About 150 gathered Wednesday in downtown Decatur “to honor Anthony Hill and begin a discussion in the community,” said protest organizer Jim Chambers.
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