By Bill Russo

You probably won't hear this on the radio, or see it on TV, or find it in your newspaper, but there's a heartbreaking true tale out of Central Florida (from March 29, 2022) that is re-stoking the argument against the mass closing of mental hospitals.  

Here's my original report of the tragedy, as based on the account by West Palm Beach TV station WPBF. (as well as some of the FB comments)

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The Indian River County Sheriff's Office (Near Vero Beach)  identified the suspect who was shot and killed at the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital Saturday night after raising scissors at deputies, officials say.

Zachary Taylor Anderson, 29, was killed by two deputies involved, who are currently on paid administrative leave.

Sheriff Eric Flowers said Anderson was brought to Cleveland Clinic on Friday by his family after attempting suicide.

During his time at the hospital, Anderson had been transported to a nearby medical facility for a transfer but that transfer was denied, so he was brought back to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital. Officials are still investigating why that occurred.

Anderson was on a gurney waiting for a room in the ER hallway around 10:30 p.m., as were other patients due to a lack of available beds, according to the sheriff.

There were four deputies in the ER that evening due to unrelated incidents. The sheriff says normally, there is only one deputy at the ER.

"The four of them are standing by the nurses station talking...the 29-year-old white male makes the decision to stand up from his gurney, he grabs a pair of scissors, and he's running through the hospital," Flowers said. "He actually runs through the middle of the emergency room and ultimately comes out right where the deputies were standing."

He said that the officials then chased Anderson after hearing the commotion.

"As they close in on him, he turns, raised the scissors up above his head. At that point our deputies began to retreat back," Flowers said, "they draw their weapons and two of the deputies fire, shooting and killing this man.

“The deputy who was closest to him and fired said, ‘I thought it was a knife.’ It was so fast, five seconds, he thought that he raised a knife."

Sheriff Flowers described the circular emergency room area as small and narrow with nurses and doctors stationed in the middle. He said his deputies did not have much space or time to think and he commends them for the actions they took.

"Were it not for their SWAT training, the two deputies that fired, there's no way they would've reacted as they did," he said. "This man was definitely intent to either commit suicide by cop or hurt somebody inside of the hospital. Nobody wants to take a life. Our folks never want to have to do that, but in this instance, they were so close to him and he was charging at them with those sharp scissors so they had no choice but to do what they did."

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With the names omitted, here are some of the comments on my Facebook page.

• 1. It is sad that they couldn't have used a taser or shot him in the leg. 

  

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    there is no shooting in the leg stuff. Cops aren't trained like that. When cops fire it's game over. That is how they're trained.

    Im not justifying it or condemning it, I am simply responding to what you said with how things are done… 

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• Back in the day he would have been transported to a 'mental' institution, but I'm pretty sure all facilities like Taunton State Hospital et al, have been closed. I remember in the 1970s when they shut down such places, the cities were suddenly flooded with folks who really could not take care of themselves.
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• It’s so terribly sad and absolutely ridiculous, that he couldn’t get the mental health help that he needed when he needed it. dead at 29  it’s just awful. 
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• Why was he left unsupervised? He should have been closely monitored due to his attempted suicide.

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