So Kaitlyn called a non-emergency number, hoping to get her boyfriend to a local hospital in St. Augustine, Florida. She told police that she did not feel threatened, The Daily Beast reports.
“My brother has been Baker Acted three times because he was threatening to hurt himself so I figured that would happen with Justin,” said Lyons. This act, which can be initiated by law enforcement, allows for the involuntary institutionalization of an individual.
“The only person Justin threatened was himself and I honestly don’t think he wanted to die.”
Within minutes, deputies Jonas Carballosa, 26, and Kyle Braig, 32, of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the house, armed with assault rifles.
They told Kaitlyn to wait outside.
“I thought they were going into war,” she says she remembers thinking when she saw the huge guns. Moments later, Justin was shot dead.
George Way, Justin’s father said the initial report given to him by Detective Mike Smith detailed an incident that described the deputies saying they were attacked by Justin with a knife. Smith, Way said, told him that Justin had threatened Kaitlyn, who, for her part, denies this.
Denise Way, Justin’s mom, says Smith told her that “they told Justin to drop the knife and he didn’t. So, he said, they shot him because “that’s what we do.”
Then Smith started telling her about the “suicide by cop” trend and suggested that this was Justin’s motive, Mediaite reports.
Denise Way says that Smith wouldn’t tell her family how many times her son was shot, or where he was shot, the Daily Beast reports.
His parents don’t believe Justin was a threat, because they think he was shot while he was in bed.
“If Justin was coming after them with a knife, at 6-foot-4, wouldn’t there be blood splattered all over the room?” George asked.
The family brought their son’s mattress to the curb after his death. George looked at it and says he believes that a bullet was dug out of the bed from a hole found in the middle of the mattress. He added that the blood was entirely on the mattress — there was none on the walls or the floor.
Commander Chuck Mulligan, of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office was asked if it is standard procedure to respond to suicidal person calls with law enforcement bearing assault rifles instead of medical professionals. “If the deputies feel that that is the appropriate weapon system to use, then yes,” he said, BoingBoing reports.
Just a few days after Justin Way’s death on May 11, another suicidal man was injured after St. Augustine Beach Police and several St. Johns County Deputies responded to a call at a residence in St. Johns County,
The officers called the man, who apparently indicated numerous times that he would come out to speak with the officers, the Sheriff’s Office said, per The St. Augustine Record.
The man was threatening to commit suicide, and became upset, approaching the front door with a rifle. Deputies saw that the man had a weapon and “engaged that individual with gunfire,” Mulligan said, per the St. Augustine Record.
The Daily Beast also noted that in a prior incident, Braig was involved in a fatal shooting with a knife-wielding man, but in that case it was another officer who fired the fatal shot.
Jonas Carballosa, the second deputy involved in Way’s shooting, once posted the following on his Facebook page the following quote:
“Most people respect the badge. Everyone respects the gun.”
Way’s parents say they don’t ever want to call the police again. Not for any reason.
Kaitlyn Lyons says she hopes the police will reconsider how to use guns in cases where people are calling about others who are suicidal or seeking help.
“I think they should come in using other things,” she told the Daily Beast. “And I think they definitely need to figure out how to handle suicidal people.”
Hopefully, there will be no more suicidal people in St. Johns county, so that their families don’t have to live down the same tragedies now faced by George and Denise Way and Kaitlyn Lyons.