Summer County, Florida – The daughter of 81-year-old Janet Sours said she had mental health issues when Sumter County deputies came to her home Monday.
She said deputies had previously been called to Sours' home.
Sour's neighbors now wonder if the situation could have been handled differently.
Deputies were called to the Rails End Mobile Home Park just before midnight Monday.
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The sheriff's office noted this involved Sours, who was in distress or had mental health issues.
She appealed to rescue workers and said, “People are dying here.”
When the deputy made contact with Sower, Sower allegedly lunged at him with a knife.
The deputy backed away, pulled out a gun and shot her.
First responders administered life-saving measures and transported Ms. Sauer to a hospital, where she later died.
Neighbor and friend Eileen Wegner said it was noticeable because Sours wasn't taking his medication.
“Her condition kept getting worse and worse. Everyone was the enemy. It was in her head and she was sick, but before that, like I said, she could call me at any time.” I was welcomed into the home,” Wegner said.
Wegner said it was shocking to learn that Sours had been shot.
“This is a terrible way to die when she was a good woman,” Wegner said.
She wonders why such a thing happened.
“I wish a Taser or something had been used on her, but that didn't happen,” Wegner said.
Charlette McCullough, a certified therapist, said crisis intervention teams should support deputies on the scene.
She added that they are trained to assess safety and de-escalate mental health crises.
“If there are households or people in our area with mental health issues, we will do a preliminary investigation and based on a preliminary investigation of that home and that address, the police will decide whether to send someone from the area. “I think that's the responsibility of law enforcement, either behavioral response teams or crisis intervention teams,” she said.
McCullough said funding is an obstacle for some law enforcement agencies to having an in-house crisis intervention team.
News 6 spoke with a spokesperson for the Sumter County Sheriff's Office to ask if deputies receive mental health training and whether anyone with mental health training was at the scene when Sowers was shot. I asked if it was okay.
The response was, “Deputies are trained.”
The spokesperson did not elaborate.
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