After Detroit man killed during mental health crisis, questions of police training abound

Detroit Police Chief James White had a choice to make.

He could shield his department from scrutiny and keep from public view body camera footage of five officers firing 38 rounds at 20-year-old Porter Burks in three seconds, killing him Oct. 2. He was hit as many as 15 times. That would align with his department's practice of not releasing footage early in an investigation, White said two days after the killing.

Or, White could release the video, in the interest of transparency. And that's what he decided to do — albeit only portions of the footage from the vantage point of a crisis intervention officer.

More:Detroit police release footage of officers fatally shooting Porter Burks

Community members were already in an uproar over the killing of Burks, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was experiencing a mental health crisis while holding a knife when he was shot to death. That anger didn't subside after the footage was released.

The footage has raised more questions about what Detroit's crisis intervention team is, how police are trained to respond to a mental health crisis and why Porter was killed even with de-escalation protocols in place.

'He wasn't no monster'

"I thought it was a wild, wild, west shootout, like Clint Eastwood movies," said protester Moe X, 61, who attended a small demonstration outside the Detroit Public Safety Headquarters on Monday.

The demonstration was organized by the National Action Network's Detroit chapter, which demanded White release the names of the officers involved in the killing, and fire them.

"I know they have de-escalation training, for sure. But how are you trying to de-escalate, and then you turn around and shoot 38 times? (Burks) didn't put the knife down, and then 'pow, pow!' All five of them opened up to shoot that many bullets," X said.

"He wasn't Jason, he wasn't Freddy Krueger, he wasn't no monster. How you shoot a human being like that?"

White said fatal force is never the desired outcome, but his officers had minimal time to "stop the threat" after they perceived Burks to be lunging toward them with a knife.

Malik Shabazz, an activist who organizes to fight gun violence in the city and often supports police initiatives, was shocked by the video.

"I give the officers credit for initially trying to de-escalate the situation. They were trying to communicate. Then all of the sudden it went helter-skelter. It's ridiculous. It's outrageous. I don't understand," Shabazz said.

And Burks' family and their lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, have also questioned the department's crisis intervention training. Fieger repeatedly called the killing an "execution" by a "firing squad" and said "if that’s crisis intervention, God help us all."

Detroit's Crisis Intervention Team was implemented in October 2020 and is modeled after the international Crisis Intervention Team program. It's a partnership between local law enforcement, the Detroit-Wayne Integrated Health Network, mental health and addiction professionals, those who experience mental illness or addiction and their advocates.

The Detroit Free Press requested training materials to help explain to the public how Detroit officers are trained to respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis who may be wielding a weapon, such as a knife. The Detroit-Wayne Integrated Health Network, which provides the training, has not provided those training materials. Detroit police provided a syllabus of trainings.

Here is what we do know:

What does the Crisis Intervention Team do?

The Detroit-Wayne Crisis Intervention Team, according to its website:

• Is police-based crisis intervention consisting of officers who are trained to help those experiencing mental illness or addiction and help provide them resources, "rather than place them in the criminal justice system."
• Promotes safety for officers and those the officers encounter.

Capt. Tonya Leonard-Gilbert, who heads CIT training for Detroit police, said CIT officers receive 40 hours of CIT training, in addition to the eight hours of mental health first aid training all officers are required to receive in the department.

In certain precincts — the 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th and Downtown Services — a co-response vehicle consisting of two CIT-trained officers and a behavioral health specialist respond to nonviolent, mental health calls, Leonard-Gilbert said.

Burks' incident was in the 2nd Precinct. Leonard-Gilbert said the co-response team would not have been the primary unit to respond because Burks had a knife, but would have been a secondary unit.

Leonard-Gilbert said the CIT program was in the works prior to 2020, and that the large volume of calls for mental health services arising at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic hastened the program's launch.

Detroit police hope to expand the co-response portion of the program to all 12 precincts by the end of 2022.

"There's a mental health crisis nationwide," Leonard-Gilbert. "This is just one more thing, one more way that we engage the community to help provide the services and resources. We're trying to make sure that everyone is OK."

According to the syllabus provided by Detroit police, CIT officers are trained in:

• Basic crisis intervention.
• Verbal de-escalation.
• Trauma-informed policing.
• Mental health awareness.
• Cultural considerations.
• Implicit bias.

Officers also play out intermediate and advanced crisis scenarios. When asked if police might play out a scenario similar to what Burks had been going through, Leonard-Gilbert deferred the question to the Detroit-Wayne Integrated Health System. The health system has not responded.

Does crisis intervention work?

The Detroit Police Department says yes. Officers have produced numerous safe outcomes with mentally ill and armed individuals using crisis intervention training that don't make the news, the department wrote in a statement last week.

Community activists who remember the Detroit police killings of Nakita Williams in 2021 and Darrien Walker in 2020, both of whom were believed to have been struggling with mental illness, are unsatisfied. Williams was holding an airsoft gun, Walker was holding a sword and dagger.

"The selective video released by James White does not show DPD use non-lethal means before shooting Porter," the racial justice organization Detroit Will Breathe wrote in a statement. "What it does show is DPD's willingness to use lethal force when responding to a routine mental health call. When police are tasked with providing mental health services, tragedy is the outcome."

Violence during police calls involving mental illness is a problem nationwide.

According to a Washington Post database, as of Oct. 11, at least 7,802 people had been shot and killed by police since 2015 — and among those, 1,651 were believed to have been struggling with mental illness.

In the Burks case, the video footage released is from the vantage point of a crisis intervention officer. It shows Burks, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, wandering a northwest Detroit street about 5 a.m. on Oct. 2. He had gotten his hands on a knife with a 3.5-inch blade. His brother called police for help.

The crisis intervention officer pleaded for Burks to put the knife down. He had his hand out toward Burks, per crisis intervention training, White said. And the officer said he was there to help, that Burks was not in trouble.

Burks would not put the knife down. He said he wanted to rest. And then, in a matter of seconds, five officers shot and killed Burks "to stop the threat" after Burks allegedly lunged toward the officers, White said. The video is not exactly clear. It's dark, and Burks appears to be several feet away from officers. It looks like he began to make rapid movements toward the officers. Then there were the shots, Porter's arms can be seen flailing in the air, and the video was cut short.

The Free Press showed the video to Keith Taylor, an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a public safety professional for 26 years.

In general, he said these types of situations take place in police departments every day, all over the country.

"It's a constant problem in our country," Taylor said. "It's really important that successful strategies be developed to save lives."

Taylor said he was not aware of the CIT training Detroit police undergo, but said the goal of that kind of training is to slow down interactions, to appeal to the individual who is in crisis and to resolve the issue without the use of force.

"I think the officers were most likely responding like they were trained to do. A supervisor on scene helping to direct the actions of the officers," he said.

"The question then becomes if the officers are doing everything they are trained to do to resolve the situation without the use of force, are there any opportunities or options to allow the officers to better handle the situation where the individual decides to attack the officers?"

But without watching all the video footage, Taylor said, that question can't be answered.