Neighbors say man who shot at officers had ongoing mental health issues, suicidal thoughts

MADISON, Wis. — Neighbors who live in the apartment complex where an officer-involved shooting happened Sunday, say the man who shot at officers had ongoing mental health issues.

Monica Howard lives two buildings away from where the shooting happened. She said she spoke to a man who lived in the same building as the man who shot at police, and said: “He has had a lot of suicidal thoughts and mental health issues. So, it wasn’t a surprise to him that this happened.”

Howard said the people who live in her apartment complex are good at communicating with one another about their mental health. She said many of them check up on each other from time to time, but said if more people did it more often, “This might have been able to be prevented if our community in Dane County had even more support for mental health.”

Howard said the best she can do is try to protect her own family when things like this happen. But she said her advice “would be we take it block by block, group by group, so we address the issues so that hopefully we can minimize things like this happening because this isn’t the first time this has happened in Madison.”

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