Jonah Neal, 25, had a handgun and was threatening suicide. Instead of local police, federal agents arrived at her doorstep. Within minutes of entering her home, a special agent had shot her son, Neal said. It would be hours before she found out her son was dead, she added.
The agent was with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which operates under Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI was sent to Memphis as part of a crime-fighting task force composed of roughly 350 federal agents and 1,450 members of the Tennessee National Guard, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. It began last fall at the direction of President Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
At least five people — including Jonah Neal in May — have been shot by a member of the Memphis Safe Task Force. …
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In its only press release regarding Jonah Neal’s death, which was released in May, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) said members of the task force encountered him “with multiple weapons inside the residence.” The TBI added, “At this time, it is not immediately clear whether Neal died as a result of the agent firing upon him or if it was self-inflicted stab wounds.”
In their first public interview since Jonah Neal died, his mother and his grandmother, Cindy Leachman Aldridge, told NPR it’s difficult to believe that a gunshot did not play a role in his death. They are asking to see any body-camera footage from that night.
Mental health crisis are not criminal incidents. Stop sending cops to lead the handling of these moments. FFS, America has zero empathy or compassion.
According to US Law Enforcement logic, Empathy and Sympathy makes you a domestic terrorist
American people have plenty of empathy and compassion, what they don’t have is literally anyone else to call.
If you have an emergency, you call 911 and as soon as they hear the word “gun” cops are the only outcome. Maybe in some universe a person has some foresight in case of a suicidal person with a gun and can look up local resources or something, but until we have something built into emergency services for this, panicked people are going to do the one thing they can think of when someone needs help.
Americans do, but America doesn’t.