Boston’s ‘Send a Social Worker’ Policy Meets

A Boston mental health disaster call turned violent Saturday when a sword-wielding man attacked a clinician and stabbed a police officer during a co-response call, half of Boston’s shift toward sending mental health staff into conditions historically dealt with by police, where responders spent almost 40 minutes attempting to defuse the state of affairs before the door opened.

Boston makes use of a co-response model that pairs police with mental health clinicians on sure 911 calls and routes some circumstances away from a police-only response. That model was in place when officers responded to Hemenway Street around 10:45 a.m. after a man called 911 claiming 4 armed people have been attempting to hurt him outdoors his condo and needed fast help.

Officers didn’t discover anybody outdoors and instead spoke with the caller through the closed door, attempting to assess what was taking place inside the condo and decide whether or not there was any fast risk to others in the building. When the standoff escalated, they introduced in EMS personnel and a clinician as half of the town’s response construction.

For roughly 35 to 45 minutes, EMS and the clinician spoke with the person through the door and decided he was in fast need of consideration due to a mental health disaster, according to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who said responders have been making an attempt to keep him engaged and centered on getting help.

Then the door opened.

“As they asked the individual to begin the process of maybe coming up and getting the attention they needed, the individual immediately opened the door and struck both the clinician and an officer who was outside the door,” Cox said. “He was armed with some type of sword, striking… the officer in the arm, knocking at least the EMS clinician to the ground.” 

Police said the person stabbed an officer in the arm and knocked the clinician to the ground before other officers used a Taser and a firearm to stop him as the confrontation unfolded just outdoors the condo doorway. EMS handled the suspect at the scene before transporting him to a close by hospital, where he later died from his accidents.

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The officer obtained a tourniquet at the scene before being transported to the hospital. Several officers and two EMS clinicians have been also handled for non-life-threatening accidents following the encounter inside the condo, according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, who confirmed a number of responders have been harm during the incident.

Boston EMS addressed the assault immediately.

“Members of Boston EMS show up to save lives — not to be assaulted. No one should face violence for simply doing their job.” 

Boston officers have promoted the co-response model as a method to route people in disaster toward treatment instead of arrest or emergency room consumption, notably in conditions initially assessed as nonviolent or behavioral health-related calls, describing it as a partnership between police and mental health staff on calls involving public security risk and designed to join people with care instead of the prison justice system.

The method grew out of coverage adjustments pushed in 2020, when Boston leaders, including then-City Councilor Michelle Wu, backed efforts to divert sure calls away from police and scale back the division’s funds following the George Floyd protests.

Boston constructed this model to ship clinicians into calls like this instead of relying on police. After roughly 40 minutes of attempting to defuse the state of affairs, the clinician despatched in to deal with the call took the first hit when the door opened.

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