Life in the Big City...spent the last half hour at work treating this guy in the recovery room for post-op respiratory distress... (he was still naked)...
pressdemocrat.com
A naked, mentally ill man armed with knives and a shovel was shot and wounded by Ukiah police Sunday night when he didn't obey orders to stop walking toward the officers, a district attorney investigator said.
Michael Brandon, 31, was shot twice while he advanced toward police in front of his home on the 200 block of Orchard Avenue. The shooting occurred at 10:30 p.m.
Brandon was in stable condition Monday at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center. He faces arrest for brandishing deadly weapons at a police officer, Ukiah Police Sgt. John McCutcheon said.
Following protocol for officer-involved shootings, the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office will review the case to determine whether the shooting was appropriate.
Both McCutcheon and district attorney's officials refused to name the officers involved.
Brandon confronted two police officers who were called about a man threatening to hurt his family, according to Tim Kiely, chief investigator for the district attorney.
They found him in front of his home with two meat cleavers, a butcher knife and a long-handled shovel. The officers attempted to talk to Brandon, who walked toward them and refused to drop the weapons, Kiely said.
Police first used pepper spray and fired three rubber projectiles from a .40mm gun intended to sting Brandon and subdue him, McCutcheon said. Both measures failed.
One of the officers then fired two shots with his handgun and struck Brandon both times.
Kiely didn't release Brandon's name, but Brandon's parents and witnesses identified him. They said he was shot in the leg and the groin.
Brandon's mother, Lillian Brandon, said her son suffers from manic depression and is a borderline schizophrenic.
Michael Brandon had been acting strangely and hadn't been taking his medications for a couple of weeks, she said. Before police arrived, Michael Brandon had tried to pry open the locked door of his parents' bedroom with a knife after his parents, who were in the room, refused his demand for cigarettes. She said she called police after hearing her son getting "angry and frustrated" after he couldn't open her bedroom door."
Another comment from The Kid... the cops did a pretty good job; two of the rubber bullets hit him right over the heart, the third just missed, hitting the left ribs. One bullet hit each leg. They could have killed him, but didn't. He didn't consent to surgery; said he was a child of God and didn't need it. When I heard that, what did I think of? " I came upon a child of God,I was walking along the road, and I asked him where was he going, and he told me,"gonna go up to Yazger's Farm, gonna join a rock and roll band..."
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