ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The family of a man shot and killed by Orange County deputies during a schizophrenic episode now questions whether calling 911 was the right move.
30-year-old Terry (TJ) Washington was shot and killed Saturday afternoon inside his home on Ortman Drive.
According to deputies, they were called because TJ was acting erratically and had not taken his medication.
The Sheriff’s Office said the responding deputies were trained in crisis intervention, but Mina said when TJ swung at deputies with a knife and reached for a deputy’s gun, they were forced to fire.
“Our deputies were in the hallway for about five minutes trying to speak with man when the man suddenly exited the bedroom with a knife. And within one second tried to stab one of our deputies,” said Mina.
Washington’s family told Channel 9 TJ loved spending time in nature, enjoyed making and listening to music, and was always happy. But they said for years he had also battled schizophrenia.
The family told Channel 9 they had called 911 before for TJ’s worsening schizophrenic episodes and a Crisis Intervention Team had successfully de-escalated prior situations.
“I definitely think they failed him,” said Washington’s older brother, Calvin Tippit.
Tippit said his family is reeling after their call for help ended in Tj’s death.
“All we wanted was to get him help,” said Tippit, “Rubber bullets, tasers, I guess a taser wasn’t available that day. Because there’s so many other ways this could have ended.”
Tippit said the family has questions about how quickly everything unfolded and believes deputies should have done more to deescalate the situation before opening fire.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, they receive about 8,000 calls a year for people in mental health crisis, which averages to about 22 calls per day, most of which are de-escalated.
The Sheriff’s Office does have a behavioral response unit in which trained mental health clinicians are paired with deputies to respond to calls, but civilians won’t respond if the person in crisis is armed.
The Sheriff’s Office also previously told Channel 9 about 1,000 of their deputies were trained in crisis intervention.
Washington’s family has asked for body camera video of the incident to be released to answer their questions about this incident.
Per the Sheriff’s Office policy that video must be released within 30 days.
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