Pennsylvania State Police shot Christian Hall multiple times Dec. 30, 2020, in East Stroudsburg. Hall, a 19-year-old Chinese adoptee of Filipino and Black Latino parents, was experiencing a mental health crisis and called 911 himself. In late January 2021, third-party footage began circulating on social media showing Hall standing with his hands up in the final seconds of the encounter.
At a March 30 news conference, the Monroe County district attorney showed heavily edited footage and claimed that because Hall had an airsoft pellet gun — i.e., a toy gun like that of Tamir Rice, who was killed by police in Cleveland in 2014 — he provoked deadly police force and it was a “suicide by cop.” Family representatives have asked for the unedited dashcam footage to be released but have yet to receive an answer.
This incident begs not just for transparency and accountability of the state police’s actions but also of protocols for “helping” individuals in mentally compromised positions. In 2016, Ronald Williams of McKees Rocks experienced a similar crisis and was shot by Weirton, W.Va., police. In that case, Officer Stephen Mader was fired for attempting to de-escalate the situation without lethal force. In a winning lawsuit against the Weirton Police Department, Mader said his Marine Corps training informed his assessment that Williams was not a danger and didn’t need to be shot.
Expecting police to provide crisis intervention puts everyone in danger, including the police. Community members like Christian Hall are not posing a risk to others, and current protocol only further threatens the lives of people in need of help.
Robert Chung
Millvale