Police Being Sued for Shooting Three Emotionally Disturbed People

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/police-being-sued-shooting-three-emotionally-disturbed-people



The last words Elsa Cruz heard her husband say, in response to police officers banging on his locked front door, were: "Don't knock on my door, it's against my will."

She'll never forget what came next.

"I heard, bluh, bluh, bluh – the sound of the tool as they broke the door down. There was silence, then a loud bang."

The shot hit her husband Samuel, a Puerto Rican artist living in New Rochelle, New York, in the chest, and left him dying in a pool of blood in their home.

The encounter that led to the shooting, which happened in May of this year, began when Cruz, 55, called 911 to try to get medical help for her husband, who had become agitated. When police arrived, she told them that he had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but did not have a weapon. She begged them to allow her to talk to him, but they refused and told her to stay away. She sought refuge in a neighbour's apartment below the one she shared with her husband, within earshot of the unfolding tragedy.