SR officer shoots man

A Santa Rosa police officer shot a 24-year-old man who was wielding a knife Wednesday inside a home where he and several other tenants receive care for mental illness, police said.

Police said officers responded after a social worker called to report that his mental health client was ``off his meds,'' violent and had a knife.

One of three officers at the A Street home fired on the man after a Taser stun gun proved ineffective and the man advanced toward them with the knife, police said.

Police declined to identify the man, say how many times he was shot or describe his injuries.

A source familiar with the situation, however, said the man was upgraded from critical condition Wednesday night and is expected to live.

Police also didn't identify the officers involved.

The shooting was the third in the past year involving Sonoma County law enforcement officers and a person reported to have mental health problems.

The man shot Wednesday is one of five tenants who rent rooms in the house from Alice Kibwaa.

Four tenants, including the man who was shot, receive mental health services from Telecare, an Alameda company that operates a Santa Rosa outpatient counseling center, Kibwaa said. A Telecare official phoned to inform her about the shooting, but did not provide any details, Kibwaa said.

``I'm kind of still in shock,'' said Kibwaa, a Santa Rosa mortgage broker.

Telecare officials said confidentiality laws prohibit them from confirming that the man was one of the 50 people who receive services through the company's Santa Rosa office.

Sonoma County mental health officials refer adults to Telecare. County officials did not return calls about the incident or Telecare's program.

The home is not required to be a licensed community care facility, Santa Rosa city officials said. The city issues use permits to group homes with more than six residents.

``It's not recognized as anything different than a residence,'' said Marie Meredith, the city's deputy director of community development.

On Wednesday, an officer was dispatched to the A Street home at 12:54 p.m. following the 911 call placed by the social worker. Two more officers arrived shortly after.

Inside the house, a Taser stun gun was used on the man after he ignored their warnings to drop the knife.

Sgt. Lisa Banayat did not offer a reason why the Taser didn't work. She also declined to say which officer fired his service weapon.

``The investigation is in its earliest stages,'' she said. ``All of the witnesses haven't been fully interviewed yet.''

One of the officers reported ``shots fired'' at 1:01 p.m., seven minutes after the first officer arrived.

In the elapsed time, the officers had made an emergency call for assistance. Police initially said the call came before the shots being fired, then revised that timeline in a press release to say it came after the shots.

Jan DeSoto said he was sitting in his car across the street from the home when he heard what sounded like three gunshots in quick succession.

``It was `bam, bam, bam,''' said DeSoto, who was dropping off his daughter, who works in a law office on the street.

DeSoto said he saw the injured man being taken out of the home on a stretcher with an oxygen mask covering his face.

In the aftermath, police cordoned off A Street between Seventh and Ninth streets while investigators scoured the scene. It was still closed Wednesday evening.

Santa Rosa police are handling the investigation, not turning it over to another agency, which occurs in the event of an officer-involved fatality.

Police Chief Ed Flint did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.

The other two shootings in the past year involving Sonoma County law enforcement officers and people reported to have mental health issues were in Sebastopol and Santa Rosa.

Two sheriff's deputies fatally shot Jeremiah Chass, 16, at his home near Sebastopol on March 12. He had resisted his parents' efforts to take him for help, and fought with the deputies.

On April 9, Santa Rosa police shot and killed Richard DeSantis, a 30-year-old bipolar man who fired a gun inside his house and later charged officers outside.

Those cases sparked a series of meetings involving Santa Rosa Mayor Bob Blanchard and other elected officials, law enforcement, mental health advocates, and representatives of civil rights and minority groups.

It isn't uncommon for people with mental illnesses to live in the community with services such as those offered by Telecare.

Telecare's program is called assertive community treatment, and is described as an alternative to hospitalization for people with serious mental illnesses. Telecare operates more than 20 such programs in four states, including California, and opened its Santa Rosa counseling office in 2006.

People ``come to the program because they no longer require a locked program environment,'' said Shea McGuier, Telecare's spokeswoman. ``These are people who the county has selected as good candidates. We help them navigate their lives.''

Telecare employs psychiatrists, registered nurses and licensed clinical social workers who work with mentally ill adults. They primarily visit clients, some several times daily, others once or twice a week, McGuier said.

Services include locating housing and jobs and assistance with returning to school and daily routines such as doctors visits, shopping and social visits, McGuier said.

Kibwaa said Telecare referred tenants to her and that she had no previous problems with at her A Street home.

``When they have somebody who needs housing, they call me,'' Kibwaa said. ``I know they're on disability, but they don't give me the details.''

You can reach Staff Writers Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com, and Michael Coit at 521-5470 or michael.coit@pressdemocrat

.com.