Deputies: Driver in the opposite direction set fire to car
Aaron Mesmer reports
TAMPA, Fla. – Hillsborough County the deputies accredited their mental health crisis training Thursday after safely ending a situation in which an oncoming driver was armed and set his vehicle on fire.
Deputies said the woman was driving the wrong way in the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 in Tampa when they made a traffic stop between Fletcher and Fowler avenues.
“The driver got out of the vehicle and was clearly going through a mental health crisis, making a lot of very aggressive statements toward deputies,” said Amanda Granit, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. “He had a knife in his hand and at one point set his vehicle on fire.”
Granit said the situation could have come to a violent end, but it didn’t because officer training has begun. In 2018, Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister began requiring 40 hours a year of crisis intervention training for his deputies.
The woman was held under the Baker Act and has not been arrested.
“Deputies and law enforcement officers don’t know what they’re experiencing when they respond to these calls or when they make a traffic stop,” Granit said. “The possibility of someone going through a mental health crisis and then responding to this need for help is a very real possibility on many of our calls. But our agents are well-trained. They’re ready to deal with that and ready to try to reduce the intensity of these situations as they occur.
Crisis Center Executive Director Clara Reynolds said law enforcement should be able to identify people seeking help, not trouble.
“Because COVID-19, the behavioral health pandemic has been so pervasive that right now. I think the statistic here locally is that 80 percent of 9-1-1 calls have a behavioral health component,” Reynolds said. “When you have to pull a gun on someone, when you have to chase someone, when they have to put bodily force that has an impact on the rescuer”.
Reynolds urged people to call 211 if they or someone they know is experiencing a mental health crisis.
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