Police Killing of Mentally Ill Man Raises Questions

The fatal shooting of a Camarillo man by sheriff’s deputies in Thousand Oaks this week was the fifth officer-involved shooting in Ventura County this year and the third killing of a mentally ill person.

And that has led some to question how police handle disturbed suspects who may be driven by an unreasonable fear of police and may not understand officers’ instructions.

Among those asking questions is Pam Hai, sister of the 29-year-old man shot and killed by deputies Tuesday night in the 800 block of Lynnmere Drive. Police said officers opened fire after Han Huynh lunged at officers with a knife.

Hai said her brother had been picked up by police in the past without incident.

“I have a feeling the police came to the scene and just overreacted,” she said. “If the police just tried to talk to him, there wouldn’t have been a problem. . . . They must have done something wrong.”

One expert wondered if the death could have been prevented.

“It’s a very complex question, and one in which there are no easy answers,” said Clyde Reynolds, executive director of the Ventura County-based Turning Point Foundation, which aids mentally ill people. “But after these kinds of tragedies, I have to wonder if there wasn’t something that could have been done to mitigate the situation.”

Deputies were called to Lynnmere Drive after a resident called to report a suspicious person wandering the Thousand Oaks neighborhood.

Police said Huynh was uncooperative and tried to push past an officer who approached him. A second deputy arrived and a short scuffle ensued during which Huynh was doused with pepper spray.

But Huynh, apparently unaffected by the suffocating spray, reached into a plastic bag for a knife, which he brandished at officers, authorities said.

After he lunged at the officers and failed to heed their commands to drop the weapon, deputies Mark Correia and Michael Rowland fired, hitting Huynh several times in the chest and abdomen, authorities said.

Huynh was pronounced dead at the scene. A second knife was found in the pocket of his coat.

No other injuries were reported and both deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave--a routine step in such cases--until an investigation is completed.

Huynh had apparently been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered bouts of depression, police said after interviewing his family. He shared a home in Camarillo with his sister and mother.

He had been listed as a missing person several times since 1995, police said. They did not know if he had any other previous run-ins with the law.

At least two others killed by police in Ventura County this year also were mentally ill, authorities say. In May, a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed 26-year-old Derek Myers, who suffered from depression and was suicidal, after he pointed a paint-ball gun at them. Earlier this month, Ventura police shot and killed 43-year-old Nick Nelson, who also suffered from depression, after he brandished a handgun.

Though every officer is trained to handle mentally ill suspects, police said it is often difficult to assess their mental state.

“Sometimes it’s obvious and sometimes it isn’t,” said Lt. Bill Bogner of the Ventura Police Department. “When we do know they’re mentally ill, we try to treat them as gently as we can, but in some situations that just isn’t possible.”

Reynolds and other psychiatric professionals have questioned the quality of that training.

“My understanding is that their training is somewhat minimal,” Reynolds said. “And while I certainly understand and respect the police officers’ need to protect themselves, we in the field would like to see some steps taken that could help mitigate these kinds of tragic situations.”

Though shooting a person is the last thing an officer wants to do, it is sometimes the only option, police officials say.

Any incident--a domestic-violence call, a traffic stop or even a cat stuck in a tree--can explode into a life-threatening situation at a moment’s notice.

With the mentally ill, those situations take on an added degree of volatility, said Capt. Keith Parks of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Although officers who shoot a mentally ill person may be criticized for using lethal force, lesser steps may be more dangerous, he added.

“Gunshots aren’t like they are in the movies,” Parks said. “People can be shot in the heart and still keep moving.”

Officer Dwayne White of the Los Angeles Police Department agreed. Officers confronted with an armed suspect are taught “to protect themselves and other people--and stopping them means shooting at their torso.”

In some instances, where the situation is not as explosive, police will call on the county’s Mental Health Crisis and Emergency Team. Staffed with 37 psychiatric professionals, the team is equipped to handle everything from domestic violence to barricaded suspects.

Though the team often brings such standoffs to a peaceful end, some situations escalate quickly out of control, officials say.

Police departments throughout the county have also begun to outfit themselves with nonlethal weapons such as Taser guns, which stun subjects with high-powered jolts of electricity, and specially designed guns that fire pellet-filled bags at 120 mph.

Police departments have traditionally held periodic training seminars to instruct officers and refresh their skills in handling unstable individuals.

“The key point is that how does [an officer] ever know whether someone is unstable or not?” Capt. Parks said. “They’re the ones who have to go in first and ascertain the situation, and sometimes things happen so quickly that officers have to make split-second decisions to save their own lives and the lives of others.

“But when something like this happens, it’s a tragedy,” he said. “It’s a tragedy for the family, it’s a tragedy for the witnesses and it’s a tragedy for the officers involved . . . It’s something all of us hate to see happen.”

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Times staff writer Tina Dirmann contributed to this report.