CLEVELAND — This is the second time News 5 Investigators tried to attend a Force Science training at Westlake and were denied both times. Other agencies enrolled in the de-escalation training include Westlake, Lorain and RTA.
More training for police to de-escalate a situation before using deadly force is something families of people killed by police have pushed for.
One agency that was supposed to attend some local training had two deadly police shootings in three months.
Over the last two days, police from Northeast Ohio took a de-escalation course by a national company.
A CMHA police sergeant was enrolled, but the police chief pulled the plug after Monday’s deadly shooting.
It happened at the Village of Riverside Park.
Body camera video shows a CMHA officer trying to tase a man who charged at him twice before the officer shot him less than 30 seconds later.
He was the second person to die at the hands of CMHA officers since June.
The other deadly shooting was at the Union Square apartments. In the body camera video, police recognized a potential mental health situation before officers went inside. When they did, a man got out of a bathtub naked.
There was a fight and you hear an officer say the man has his gun. An officer also tries to taser the man, but the man fires the officer's gun and police fire back.
News 5 Investigators asked CMHA Police Chief Andy Gonzalez whether he thought the officers acted appropriately after watching the videos.
"I think to be fair to the investigation I should refrain from offering my opinion on this Tara,” said Chief Gonzalez.
Chief Gonzalez says training is paramount for his roughly 70 officers on staff.
"We don't shy away from training. Training is healthy, training is good,” said Chief Gonzalez.
CMHA was one of ten agencies enrolled in Realistic De-Escalation training by Force Science.
Westlake police hosted a two-day instructor course at the city’s recreation center. Police denied our request to attend the training to see what it was all about and also declined an interview.
Chief Gonzalez says one of his sergeants was supposed to go until the shooting Monday.
"I canceled the training so that he could be available for us here in performing his duties as a sergeant,” said Chief Gonzalez.
Chief Gonzalez says the sergeant, who is one of their certified instructors, registered in July, a month after the Union Square deadly shooting.
News 5 asked the chief if that shooting was a factor in the decision to attend.
"No it was not,” said Chief Gonzalez.
De-escalation training is part of the required four-hour yearly in-service training for CMHA officers.
There are also policy reviews and video scenarios.
"We try role play and include in our training all aspects; male, female, juveniles, individuals that may be experiencing mental health crisis, individuals that are just angry, domestic violence,” said Chief Gonzalez.
Chief Gonzalez says they’re cooperating with the investigations for each shooting and will do internal reviews once they’re completed.
"Training is always part of our review,” said Chief Gonzalez.
He says as chief he always looks at whether a situation could have been handled differently, to give a different result.
“Not to say the result was bad but there's always room for improvement,” said Chief Gonzalez.
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