More police training for mental-health issues

Supervisors for the Georgia Tech police officer who fatally shot a student thought the officer showed promise, but there is no evidence that he had received the kind of training that advocates say is crucial to effectively interact with people who have mental-health issues.

Officer Tyler Beck fatally shot Scout Schultz on Sept. 16, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has said. Beck and other officers responded after Schultz called 911 to report an armed suspicious person, investigators said. Police have said Schultz had a knife and refused to drop it after repeated commands.

A lawyer for Schultz's parents, Chris Stewart, has said that Schultz appeared to have been experiencing a psychological breakdown, and that Beck overreacted by shooting when non-lethal force could have been used.

"Police are responding to medical emergencies and often they don't have the training to recognize even that there is a medical emergency happening," said Laura Usher, senior manager for criminal justice and advocacy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

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