After police fatally shoot a man in crisis in Brighton, council proposals on crisis response and police video are still in committee

Boston police shot and killed a man in Brighton on Friday morning during what Police Commissioner Michael Cox described as a mental health crisis. Officers went to Selkirk Road, near Cleveland Circle, around 7 a.m. after a 911 call about a man with a knife who was threatening to hurt himself, Boston.com reported.

Cox said officers talked with the man for about 20 minutes and had less-lethal options at the scene. He said the man then charged at officers on a porch with a "very large knife," and an officer shot him once in the abdomen, WBUR reported. The man died at a hospital. He has not been publicly identified. Two officers were taken to a hospital to be checked, and Cox said none was stabbed. The officer who fired has been on the force a little more than two years, according to WBUR.

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said his office will conduct a "complete and thorough investigation," WBUR reported. News reports so far have not said whether a mental health clinician was part of the response or when body camera video might be released.

For residents, the shooting brings back two questions the City Council has asked all year: who should respond when someone is in a mental health crisis, and when the public and oversight bodies get to see police video. Several proposals on both are waiting in committee.

What our records show

Two crisis-response hearings, waiting since May. On May 13, the council sent two hearing orders from City Councilor Miniard Culpepper to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery. One asks how the city can better support and train first responders and 911 dispatchers who handle mental health crises (docket 1000). The other asks about a community-based crisis response pilot (docket 1001). Each has 11 sponsors, including Council President Liz Breadon, who represents Allston-Brighton. Neither has had a hearing. Both have been in committee 171 days.

The city's own pilot. At a May 21 Ways and Means budget hearing, a Boston Public Health Commission official said the city would issue a request for proposals for a peer-led mental health crisis response pilot "in the next few weeks," with the goal of launching in one neighborhood in fall 2026. The official said the pilot is meant to reduce reliance on police and to add to, not replace, existing emergency response (watch at 35:11). Our records show no update to the council since.

What police already have. At a Sept. 10 Public Safety hearing, a department official described clinicians from the Boston Emergency Services Team who work alongside officers on behavioral health calls, and officers with crisis intervention team training (watch at 1:08:03). The council approved two state Department of Mental Health grants for that work on Sept. 23, both 13-0: $240,806.50 for 40-hour crisis intervention team training for officers (docket 1394) and $110,000 for a recovery coach hired through the BEST program (docket 1782).

Police video. In March the council adopted a Culpepper and Worrell resolution asking the department to give oversight bodies timely access to body and dashboard camera footage after police shootings and other major events. It passed 9-3, with John FitzGerald, Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy voting no and Sharon Durkan voting present (docket 0639). Culpepper's companion hearing order on footage release rules (docket 0638) went to Public Safety on March 25. City Councilor Henry Santana told the council on April 8 that the committee had held its hearing the day before (watch at 1:21:59). The order is still in committee, 220 days after referral.

Two ordinances. On July 22, City Councilor Brian Worrell filed an ordinance he said would set clear deadlines for releasing body and dashboard camera footage after incidents of public interest and require more reporting on police lawsuits and settlements (docket 1412; watch at 1:08:55).

Culpepper filed a second ordinance the same day to change the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. He said it would set timelines for investigations and require more public reporting on where cases stand (docket 1413; watch at 1:12:38). Both went to the Committee on Government Operations, with 10 sponsors each, and have waited 101 days without a hearing.

What's next

The district attorney's office is investigating with Boston police. The council's next meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 4, at noon. A hearing order stays in committee until the chair schedules a hearing and reports back, and an ordinance needs a committee report and a council vote. We will follow the investigation and any council action.