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'The decision to kill my son was wrong'
Sadness, anger grip family of mentally ill man shot by police.
Squeezed inside their modest Northwest Side hotel room two days before Christmas, the Cullum family is finding no joy this holiday season.
It's been three weeks since their mentally ill son and brother, Tavan Cullum, 31, set fire to his family's house and led authorities on a low-speed chase up Interstate 10 before he was shot and killed by police outside Boerne.
Trading presents, preparing a large turkey dinner, and other holiday traditions have been replaced by phone calls to the insurance company and daily trips to Cullum's gravesite, where his mother lies on his grave and sobs.
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At least twice in the week before police shot and killed him, officers declined the family's requests to have him committed to a mental health facility.
In a cell phone recording provided to the San Antonio Express-News, officers can be heard telling the family that Tavan Cullum — who was barricaded in his room with a shotgun threatening to kill himself — eventually would follow through with his threats. Instead of detaining him, officers suggested the terrified family should vacate their home.
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The Cullum family also wants to know why phone calls to the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapters in San Antonio, Kerrville and Austin were not returned. Phone records show that multiple calls were made to the San Antonio office in October and November, but the Cullums say they were ignored.
“We were so desperate,” Tavan Cullum's mother, Won Sun Cullum, said as she broke down in tears. “I left messages. Where were they?”
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“My son is dead,” [Bobby Cullum] said. “Mental illness is everywhere. It's going to happen to someone else if something doesn't change in this city.”
the rest, at
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...ill-my-son-was-wrong-918494.php#ixzz192UndaH4
Earlier S.A. Express-News articles:
Chase ends in death
Safety nets failed to halt fatal slide to mental illness
Sadness, anger grip family of mentally ill man shot by police.
Squeezed inside their modest Northwest Side hotel room two days before Christmas, the Cullum family is finding no joy this holiday season.
It's been three weeks since their mentally ill son and brother, Tavan Cullum, 31, set fire to his family's house and led authorities on a low-speed chase up Interstate 10 before he was shot and killed by police outside Boerne.
Trading presents, preparing a large turkey dinner, and other holiday traditions have been replaced by phone calls to the insurance company and daily trips to Cullum's gravesite, where his mother lies on his grave and sobs.
---
At least twice in the week before police shot and killed him, officers declined the family's requests to have him committed to a mental health facility.
In a cell phone recording provided to the San Antonio Express-News, officers can be heard telling the family that Tavan Cullum — who was barricaded in his room with a shotgun threatening to kill himself — eventually would follow through with his threats. Instead of detaining him, officers suggested the terrified family should vacate their home.
---
The Cullum family also wants to know why phone calls to the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapters in San Antonio, Kerrville and Austin were not returned. Phone records show that multiple calls were made to the San Antonio office in October and November, but the Cullums say they were ignored.
“We were so desperate,” Tavan Cullum's mother, Won Sun Cullum, said as she broke down in tears. “I left messages. Where were they?”
---
“My son is dead,” [Bobby Cullum] said. “Mental illness is everywhere. It's going to happen to someone else if something doesn't change in this city.”
the rest, at
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...ill-my-son-was-wrong-918494.php#ixzz192UndaH4
Earlier S.A. Express-News articles:
Chase ends in death
Safety nets failed to halt fatal slide to mental illness