San Mateo shooting

A mentally ill man was shot by police in California yesterday. Stanley Wong was disturbing the peace, allegedly, at a restaurant. The officer arrived, and Wong pulled out a pocketknife. The officer fired his Taser, but according to the San Mateo Daily Journal “the gun was ineffective and the officer attempted to retreat while calling for emergency cover. He eventually shot Wong ’several’ times and then called paramedics.”

Wong was well known in San Mateo. In fact, says the Journal, “he was identified earlier this year as one of the city’s top 12 ‘core homeless’ in downtown San Mateo that could benefit from a pilot program called the Homeless Outreach Team. … It’s not clear how much help, if any, Wong received through the program.” Well, since the aim of the program is t o get homeless people like Wong off the streets, it does seem pretty clear how much help he got: not much.

It’s unfortunate that one of the top homeless people in the city—one recognized by various mental health and law enforcement agencies—was unable to get help. If he couldn’t obtain the services he needed, where does that leave everyone else? As the Journal puts it, Wong “was recently identified by officials as someone they might be able to help.” Or shoot to death.

Dead man had mental illness

liz | 1:03 PM | Uncategorized