Prince William police shot and killed a 79-year-old man. Was it a preventable tragedy?
By Editorial Board,
ON DEC. 10, Prince William County police responded to a 911 call from a woman seeking help for her husband, who had a gun and was talking about shooting himself. A little more than an hour after police arrived at the home, the 79-year-old man was dead, shot by officers as he raised his gun, walked toward them and said “shoot me.” Acting police chief Jarad Phelps called the events “heartbreaking.” Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth ruled the use of deadly force “justified and reasonable under the circumstances of this tragic encounter.”
It is hard to quarrel with either assessment. But the events that played out that night in Dumfries should serve as a cautionary tale that prompts questions of whether there were steps that could have been taken that might have averted the deadly outcome and that could prevent future tragedies.
The death of Kurtis Kay Frevert appears to be a classic case of “suicide by cop,” in which a person who wants to die acts in a threatening manner so as to provoke a lethal response from police. Frevert, who had been behaving so erratically as to prompt his wife to call 911, had wandered from his home and was shot when he returned to his porch and aimed his handgun at police after being told to drop the weapon. Officials said five officers almost simultaneously fired their guns. A nearby home was also hit, but fortunately no one else was injured. Ms. Ashworth, whose investigation included review of body-cam footage and more than 900 photographs, said, “In this incident, the danger posed by the decedent was real. Each of the officers expressed that they believed either they, individually, were in danger of being shot or killed or that other officers present were in danger of being shot or killed.”
Of the nearly 1,000 fatal police shootings in the United States every year, experts estimate that about 100 of them are suicide by cop. The Police Executive Research Forum, a leading think tank, has made a project of figuring out ways to reduce or eliminate these incidents, including development of a special training protocol that stresses de-escalation strategies, such as trying to converse with a person in distress rather than shouting commands and pointing a gun. Prince William police say they pair their training with those standards. But that protocol, which emphasizes that police must first consider their own safety and that of others, doesn’t apply if the subject has a gun, as Frevert did.
No doubt acting chief Phelps was correct when he said the incident underscores the dangers officers face, but one has to wonder whether sending armed police to deal with a suicidal 79-year-old is the best approach. Part of the national reckoning about policing that has followed the death of George Floyd has centered on questions about police departments’ role and whether there are other agencies that could better handle situations of people in mental distress. We don’t know whether there were other things that could have been done to prevent Frevert’s death. But we do know that what happened was a tragedy for all involved, and that includes those five police officers.
Read more: The Post’s View: ‘Suicide by cop’ is a persistent problem. Here’s how to prevent it. The Post’s View: Police jurisdictions must do better at managing ‘suicide by cop’ situations Pete Earley: Mental illness is a health issue, not a police issue Alex Busansky: Trump’s worst pardon is one you haven’t heard about Megan McArdle: We should embrace the Cassandras when the next disaster comes
