Despite an increase in police training, such lethal confrontations persist today and pose the question of how to reconcile a police officer's understandable instinct for survival with the particular needs of a mentally ill person.
Last month, Anthony DiDonato, a 62-year-old Southwest Philadelphia man with a history of mental illness, stabbed an officer with a screwdriver and was subdued with batons and blackjacks. He died 12 days later. Chuck DiDonato says his brother was beaten to death by the officers.
The Police Department's homicide unit and Internal Affairs Division are conducting separate investigations into the incident. The Philadelphia office of the FBI is reviewing the case to determine whether Anthony DiDonato's civil rights were violated.
The family plans to file a federal civil rights suit against the Police Department on Oct. 2 unless a settlement is reached before then.
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DiDonato's death occurred seven years after the Police Academy introduced courses for recruits on how to deal with the mentally ill. Rookies undergo 32 hours of training on how to distinguish various forms of mental illness and how to handle patients through "role-playing" exercises.
The incident raises the issues of whether this training has been adequate and whether other officers, those who joined the department before 1988, should also be trained.
Police officers are not mental health experts, but they must handle an ever-increasing number of calls that require such skills.
Such calls are known as "302 involuntary commitments" after a provision in the Mental Health Act of 1976 that sets guidelines for admission to psychiatric facilities. A subject of a "302" call requires a minimum of 120 hours, or five days, in an emergency facility, according to the law.
