Mental health experts are saying the March 2 shooting of a University of Florida (UF) doctoral student in his on-campus apartment by campus police could have been avoided.
Officials at UF had been told that Kofi Adu-Brempong, 35, had experienced delusions for at least a year. The day before the incident, Adu-Brempong’s condition worsened, and he believed students were plotting to kidnap him and return him to Africa for a ritual killing, according to Ocala.com.
Critics say that when police visited the student on the day of the shooting, they opted not to use the Baker Act, a state law that would have allowed officers to involuntarily take Adu-Brempong to a mental health examination.
Two of the five officers involved in the incident were trained in Crisis Intervention Team techniques, which teach officers methods on getting treatment for the mentally ill. The techniques are designed to keep suspects with mental health issues from going to prison.
Police maintain Adu-Brempong tried to strike an officer with a weapon, which resulted in an officer shooting the student in the face, damaging his jaw. Adu-Brempong faces charges of aggravated assault on an officer and resisting an officer with violence.
It was determined that the encounter police had with Adu-Brempong did not meet the Baker Act requirements; however, mental health experts said the doctoral student’s E-mail messages were enough to bring him in for a mental evaluation.
UF officials have hired an outside firm to investigate the incident.
Various groups and hundreds of students plan to hold a rally March 16 to protest the shooting.
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