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FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WXIX) – The parents of a man shot by police during a mental health attack say things should have been handled very differently.
Susan and Paul Hubbard hold no ill will towards the police.But they question the reaction Wednesday night in Fairfield Township I have admitted my son, 29-year-old Brian Hubbard, to the hospital in critical condition.
After Susan called Brian, who was experiencing emotional turmoil, officers responded to Camargo Park around 8 p.m. to help Butler County’s Mobile Crisis Team.
At one point, Brian left the residence and approached officers Adam Green and Richard Coy with a knife and a hammer, according to body camera footage released Friday.
The officers repeatedly told Brian to drop his weapon, but he kept moving towards him.
Officers opened fire and beat Brian, 29, before he fled to his residence. Officers tracked him down, subdued him, and gave him first aid.
“If he knew he was going to be shot,” Susan said Friday night.
Susan says she called first because Brian was saying things that didn’t make sense and scared her. She says she has called for crisis intervention at least five times in the past.
Paul describes Crisis Teams as a 24/7 resource for mentally ill patients experiencing a mental health crisis. “The interventionist can speak to the mentally ill in a very calm and peaceful way.”
Paul says the visible presence of police officers just outside Brian’s residence contributed to the escalation of the situation. I wonder if it was.
“Instead, he took the opportunity to look out the window and see,” Paul said. “They were outside talking to us for several minutes, asking questions, having normal conversations. They weren’t on high alert.”
This gave Brian the opportunity to get “whatever he could” at home. “Unfortunately he grabbed a long kitchen knife and a hammer.”
Paul says he tried to put himself between his son and the police and joined their plea to drop their weapons.
“I was between him and the cop for seconds, seconds. And I said, ‘Don’t hurt my son. Use the taser!’ Please don’t hurt my son.” And when they came many times, I said, ‘Whatever you do, when you come, don’t hurt my son. Let’s not hurt him, so I have them a space to taste him.”
Officers say they didn’t use tasers because people in an emotionally distraught state often don’t respond to tasers.
Their order for Brian to drop his weapon doesn’t work either, and Paul says there’s a reason for that.
“A lot of people don’t respond to audible signals because they’re autistic or mentally handicapped,” he said. “They freeze. Their minds aren’t working.”
The police then opened fire. Paul counted his shot three times. There could have been more, he says.
“I was just starting to get shocked, so I stopped listening around 3:00.”
As Brian fights for his life in the hospital, Susan and Paul try to learn from what happened.
“No hate,” Paul said of the cops. “I support them. So much. And I hope to see something good come out of my son’s tragedy.”
Officers Green and Coy are on leave.
The Ohio Bureau of Investigation is investigating.
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