My son Joseph had a sudden onset of Paranoid Bipolar Schizophrenia, the Crisis Intervention Team in my county had been defunded, and the Mental Health establishments pushed my pleas for help off onto local law enforcement saying this was my only option for forced care. I refused to believe this was my only option. I continued to try to convince my son his delusions were just that, delusions, and I continued to beg Mental Health professionals for help.

Joseph continued to spiral and I gave in and sought help through law enforcement. This was a huge mistake. I was coerced and lead into a “Arrest-able Scenario” by the responding officer and this was supposed to only get Joseph into custody to allow them to take him to a 72-hour hold for a mental health evaluation. This “Arrest-able Scenario” was used to jail him and no mental health help was given. I also asked the officer that helped me write the “Arrest-able Scenario” to place my sick son on a “No Buy List” so he could not legally purchase a gun. This also never happened. From the beginning of asking Law Enforcement for help it was false police reports, lies leaked into the media, and no mental help at all.

This worsened Joseph’s mental health substantially. Once these false trumpeted up charges were dropped, he was released with no help but in worse condition, and he legally purchased a gun. Months of being homeless and in the street battling undiagnosed untreated Serious Mental Illness and Type One Diabetes his illness led to tragedy. On August 16, 2020 a 911 call made by me stating Mental Illness and psychotic break and delusional and trying to steal my car was not treated as a mental health call. The local police officers showed up to my home with extreme excessive force, one officer even brought a AR15 into my home where one minor, a disabled autistic 19 yr old and a mentally ill man and myself were.

The officer tried to force his way into the bedroom we were all in and he could not fit his body through the barricaded doorway so he stuck the barrel of his AR15 into the bedroom doorway where they knew an armed and psychotic man was. Shots were fired and the responding officers shot over 123 bullets into my bedroom from several different angles, with 4 people in the room and they had no idea where we were at in the room.

My sick son shot 3 officers through a closed doorway while in a mental health crisis, all of this could have been avoided if they would have just helped him get mental health help we begged for several times. We endured a 19-hour swat standoff. Once in custody my son was found incompetent and placed on court ordered mental health medicines because he still believed he was not mentally ill.

Two years later Joseph was still in jail even though the law says he should have been placed in a mental health hospital 30 days after he was found incompetent. The judge sited Texas for Joseph still being incarcerated and not in the hospital. Finally he was placed in a mental health hospital for 1.5 years. Once they say competency was restored the state of Texas treated him like he was never sick. He was not
placed in a Mental Health court and during my son’s trial the DA withheld evidence, covered up mistakes and continued to leak lies to the local media pushing their false narrative. It is unfortunate that legislators place mental illness firmly into the laps of law enforcement and that the new mental health hospitals are currently in a prison’s jail cell but it is factual. My son’s tragedy and my families plight for help was ignored multiple times. Lies lead the community to believe they were protected but if they understood the truth and the failures of the system they would change their perspective.

Unfortunately my son’s case does not standalone. Family after family and story after story read so familiar. Now my son is medicated but is still serving a life sentence due to a broken system that could have saved him and us.