Study: People with Mental Illness are 16 Times More Likely to Be Killed During a Police Encounter

The shooting of Alfred Olango in El Cajon, California, is just the most recent in a string of police shootings of primarily men of color with mental illness or disability. Just last week, police in Charlotte, North Carolina, shot and killed Keith Scott, a 43-year-old father of seven who reportedly had suffered a traumatic brain injury during a motorcycle accident in 2015. In July, a police officer in North Miami contends he mistakenly shot an African-American behavioral therapist, Charles Kinsey, when he was aiming for Arnaldo Rios Soto, a 26-year-old autistic man. "Democracy Now!" speaks to John Snook, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. He is co-author of a recent study that found people with mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other civilians.