An Oklahoma City woman was hallucinating when she grabbed her mother’s sweatshirt and dragged her toward the front door, according to a police report. The woman yelled, “What did you do with my mother?” as she slammed her mother’s head into the wall and pushed her off the front porch.
Her mother told Oklahoma City police that her daughter had schizoaffective disorder and begged officers to take her for a mental health evaluation, which could result in forced treatment, interrupting three years of similar episodes.
Officers refused, according to the report. Police knocked on the front door, but the woman turned up the music she was playing and ignored them, the report states.
She was no longer hurting anyone. There was nothing officers could do.
Oklahomans with mental illness or substance abuse conditions can be detained for stabilizing treatment if they pose an immediate threat of harm to themselves or others. But the requirement that harm be immediate disqualifies many in need of help, leaving them to further deteriorate, often resulting in homelessness, incarceration, serious injury or death.