Police shot and nearly killed Raul de la Cruz during a mental health crisis. 1 year later, he’s suing.

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The suit, which has not been previously reported, was filed in Manhattan federal court. It alleges that sending police to address mental health crises is unlawful because it leaves people with mental disabilities without equal access to the city’s emergency response programs. It also demands an injunction to prohibit the city from “continuing to enforce its current police-run mental health crisis response policy.”who called 911 on himself while in a "mental crisis," police said.

His family emigrated from the Dominican Republic when he was 29. His formal education ended after the fifth grade, and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 39, according to the lawsuit. He is now 44. “Neither 311 nor 911 operators dispatched a mental health crisis team to assist,” the lawsuit stated.

In a news conference that afternoon, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said Santo de la Cruz called 911 for help that day. It wasn’t until the next morning that“I was worried something like this could happen,” he told Gothamist that day in Spanish. “That’s why I called 311 … I didn’t go asking for help just for him to get killed.”

Santo, then 67, was told by phone that his son “had a 10% chance of survival” and wouldn’t make it through the night. Marinda van Dalen, a lawyer with the nonprofit New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, stepped in to represent Santo and secure his rights to visit his son.

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