CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Some lawmakers and use of force experts have raised concerns over the deadly police shooting of a mentally ill man who was holding a hatchet in a Chesterfield neighborhood last year. While they believe the incident shines a light on the need for enhanced de-escalation training, new regulations that would do just that have stalled in Virginia.
On July 8, 2023, 34-year-old Charles Byers was fatally shot by a Chesterfield officer. At the time of his death, Byers was under a temporary detention order to receive psychiatric treatment due to his mental illness, leading to questions about why he was on the street and not in a hospital.
"It seems like the system failed Mr. Byers from the private hospital, to law enforcement, to the legal system," said State Delegate Debra Gardner (D - Chesterfield County).
In part one of this story, Gardner and state senator Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) committed to addressing gaps in the mental health and legal systems that they believe could prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Gardner said she would look into proposing legislation in the next General Assembly session that requires magistrates to look for mental health orders, such as a temporary detention order or emergency custody order, when deciding whether to release a defendant during a bail determination hearing.
“In this situation, I don't think everything that could have been done was done to save this person's life," Gardner said.
But that's not where her concerns end. Gardner said portions of the footage of the police shooting gave her pause.
When two officers responded to Wycliff Court for reports of a breaking and entering, they found Byers standing in a yard holding a hatchet.
The body camera video showed the officers walk toward Byers as he backed away from them. Police had their guns drawn and ordered him to drop the hatchet, but he did not comply with those commands.
One officer deployed a Taser, but it was ineffective.
About 45 seconds after arriving on scene, a second officer fired give gunshots as Byers as he continued to retreat while carrying a hatchet.
Byers then turned around to run away, and the officer fired two more gunshots at his back.
“My initial reaction was — what happened to the de-escalation part? I did not see that," Gardner said.
As a former deputy director of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, Gardner said her understanding of police training is it's hard to understand what's going through the officer's mind unless you're in the moment.
However, she said it "gave her some concern" to see that Byers was backing away when he was shot and not advancing as Chesterfield Police initially claimed he was.
Hashmi believes the incident revealed a need for increased crisis intervention training (CIT) and coordinated mental health responses.
“I think had we had a CIT team in place in response to this particular case, individuals accompanying our law enforcement officials at that instance, there would have been a different response," Hashmi said.
De-escalation and crisis intervention are both aspects of new training standards developed by the Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) in response to police reform legislation passed during a special session in 2020.
The legislation called for training in interacting with people who have a mental illness, de-escalation techniques, and use of force.
In December 2021, DCJS completed a revision of its training standards and included skills that focus solely on identifying and responding to those in crisis as well as identifying the criteria for mental health orders such as temporary detention orders and emergency custody orders.
However, the training standards have still not been implemented in Virginia.
“Those regulations have not been promulgated yet. They are still in the regulatory process," Gardner said, calling it "somewhat disappointing."
For more than two years, since March 2022, the training standards have been awaiting review by Governor Glenn Youngkin's Office and the Office of Regulatory Management.
Youngkin's spokesperson Christian Martinez told CBS 6 that the governor's office has reviewed over 1,000 regulatory actions including a backlog from the previous administration. Some of them are still under review for compliance with statue and application statewide, he said.
The governor committed to reducing the number of government regulations through a 2022 executive order saying they've "expanded to encompass almost every facet of our daily lives" and on average take two to three years to be issued.
In his latest regulatory plan announced in June, Youngkin said the new DCJS training standards will not reduce regulatory requirements or compliance burdens because they "update outdated language."
The governor's plan stated action is expected on the regulations in December of this year.
DCJS also retained the company Force Concepts to develop lesson plans on these training objectives, and those plans were completed in October of 2023. The state agency is now reviewing the plans.
Once lesson plan reviews and the regulatory process are completed, the training will be given to all Virginia academies that train police officers.
“We have a lot of work still left to do whether it's training programs for our police officers or ramping up our crisis intervention teams," Hashmi said.
Gardner said as mental health issues become more prominent, law enforcement will be interacting with people with behavioral health problems more frequently, which she believes creates a sense of urgency.
“If we would just enact some of the legislation that we just put in place, I think that would help mitigate some of it," Gardner said.
While the Byers family alleged Chesterfield Police used excessive force, the police department has maintained officers took necessary and appropriate actions. The Commonwealth's Attorney cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.
CBS 6 reached out to every member of the Chesterfield delegation to request interviews for this story. The other lawmakers either declined to comment or did not respond.
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