Less than 10 seconds after officers opened the door, police shot Yong Yang in his parents’ Koreatown home while he was holding a knife during a bipolar episode.

Parents in Los Angeles’ Koreatown called for mental health help in the middle of their son’s bipolar episode this month. Clinical personnel showed up — and so did police shortly after. 

Police fatally shot Yong Yang, 40, who had a knife in his hand, less than 10 seconds after officers opened the door to his parents’ apartment where he had locked himself in, newly released bodycam video shows.

Now the parents of Yang, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder around 15 years ago, have told NBC News exclusively that they are disputing part of the account captured on bodycam, in which police recount a clinician’s saying Yang was violent before the shooting on May 2.

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[–] 19 points 2 years ago (13 children)

There needs to be a way to call for help from unarmed specialists. 😖

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  • [+] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (9 children)
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I will say, I work ambulance for a very right wing rural community. I have done this for a number of years now.

    While I do have issues at times with our local LEO, they do a good job with not shooting my patients, or their dogs.

    They have done a good job in my community with securing the scene without escalating and then standing back and let us deal with medical/mental health crisis.

    These stories do happen to often, and there are policy changes that need to happen, but there are a significant number of communities that have law enforcement who are acting appropriately and therefore get no news coverage.

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  • [+] -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)
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  • in the civilized world, there is. You call the police for an event like this, and they send their psych staff over with support. The issue where I am is that they work normal hours, so late night/weekends you'll get the support team only (who are still not regular, untrained cops).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    There sort of is now but most people don't know about it yet. Instead of 911, dial 988. I don't think 988 sends people to you, but they are trained mental health specialists who can talk instead of shout and threaten violence.

    Read more here: https://988lifeline.org/

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