RIP Yahacov Dennis

Yahacov Dennis was killed in Charleston, IL on January 25th, 2025 after he disarmed a police officer and turned it on himself. It's a tragedy which perhaps couldn't have been prevented give our current system of emergency response, which is why that system needs to change. 

He called 9-1-1 and the police were dispatched to perform a wellness check at a gas station where Yahacov was parked at a pump. He said he'd taken some drugs which he believed might have been laced with PCP. The officers asked if they could move his car and if he would like to sit in the back of a squad care uncuffed to stay warm. Cov tensed up as if he was seizing and might fall backwards. The officers reached to hold him up, he grabbed one of their guns and shot himself.

Because it wasn't a malicious death in which a white officer murdered a Black man, I worry that it will be seen as an isolated incident that no one could have done anything to prevent. But that's not true. It could have been prevented by not dispatching officers with firearms on their hips to help a young man struggling with a drug related crisis. Cov was 22 years old. He'd just gone back to school at EIU. He had a future ahead of him, and if we could have dispatched a social worker instead of a cop he would be alive today. Yahacov was an unarmed person who called for help; why would that warrant the response of someone with a firearm? I recognize that this is the only way our current system has to address these calls, and that is the problem.

We must work to build up a framework of emergency responders for mental health and drug related crises. They don't need to carry firearms; instead they should be trained in de-escalation and trauma-informed care. They should be completely independent from the police, and available by dispatch the same way firefighters and EMT's are. We need to expand our first responder toolkit. Guns inherently make situations more dangerous. We need to develop an approach to helping people in crisis which will not make the situation more dangerous. Yahacov should have made it home that night. Will we do anything to make sure the next person does?