Font ResizeSANTA FE - One former soldier's short life and violent death has ignited a political debate about how well police officers are trained to deal with mentally ill people.
Kenneth Ellis III served as an Army infantryman in the Iraq war. He later became an adversary of police in Albuquerque, where he held a handgun and threatened officers outside a convenience store in January 2010.
A policeman shot and killed Ellis after he stepped out of his vehicle, gun still in hand.
Ellis had drug problems, and officers previously had served him with a warrant on a narcotics charge. After his death at age 25, police learned he also had post-traumatic stress disorder.
Relatives said Ellis was wounded in an explosion that killed his closest friend in the Army.
Months after Ellis' death, a grand jury ruled that the police shooting was justified. Officers called what happened "suicide by cop."
At least two state legislators, though, wonder if Ellis' life had to end that way.
Rep. Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, and Sen. David Ulibarri, D-Grants, are sponsoring a bill that would mandate 40 more hours of specialized training for every certified police officer in New Mexico.
They want officers to develop skills to "effectively interact with people suffering from mental impairments." These might include autism, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Police officers, under pressure and dealing in milliseconds, would benefit from more training, said the former soldier's
"It is a travesty that my son served his country in war and came back here and was killed. This bill is for law enforcement, but civilians are the ones who will benefit most from it," he said.
Richard Williams, police chief of Las Cruces, said his department already has developed a 40-hour crisis intervention training program in addition to what officers go through in the academy.
Many departments are doing this type of additional training already, he said.
"Is it a good thing for law enforcement? Sure, anytime we can de-escalate a potentially violent situation it is good for everybody."
He said about one-third of fatal shootings by police are similar to the one in which Ellis died.
Rep. Dennis Kintigh, a retired FBI agent and former interim police chief of Roswell, criticized the bill during an emotional committee hearing this week.
"I was over the top," Kintigh, R-Roswell, said Wednesday in an interview. "My frustration was that people were crafting a solution with zero input from law enforcement."
He said he thought the bill had great potential to help people, provided that training programs were put in place with the expertise of police. Instead, he said, the sponsors had relied only on people with experience in mental health treatment and advocates for military veterans.
"It's not a bad idea, but it stands to reason that law enforcement should be included," Kintigh said.
Ulibarri said Ellis' tragic story motivated him to cosponsor the bill. The measure is HB 93, but he prefers to call it the Kenneth Ellis III bill.
It cleared the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, despite concerns from Kintigh. The bill's next stop is the House Judiciary Committee.
Ulibarri said the bill's intent is to help police defuse confrontations whenever possible.
"We're not trying to compromise their safety," he said in an interview. Rather, he said, more and better training might save lives and keep the peace.
Kintigh said he wanted police involved because the best of them already stop many ugly confrontations from escalating to violence.
"Truthfully, there's another aspect here - maturity," he said. "Oftentimes experienced officers can make a better judgment."
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or (505) 820-6898. His blog is at http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/newmexico.
