Chesterfield County, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) -- Chesterfield Police have revealed the man shot by officers in a July 8 incident had been admitted to a mental health treatment facility just two days prior.
A relative took Charles Byers to a hospital for mental health treatment on July 5, according to Chesterfield detectives, and he was served a temporary detention order on July 6. On the 8th, however, police say they found him "attempting to enter homes," and carrying a hatchet.
Chesterfield Police maintain they tried several de-escalation tactics, including tasering Byers, but that they eventually resorted to deadly force after he would not stop advancing on them with the hatchet.
Chesterfield Chief of Police Jeffery Katz has now weighed in on the shooting, saying it was the result of a "shameful" failure of America's mental health infrastructure, and that such failures are all too common. "It is stunning," he said, "that mental health is such a pervasive issue... in this country, and yet the patients, the practitioners, and the police are hamstrung by an infrastructure that puts profits over people."
