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CHICAGO, IL (WBBM) — They just wanted to get some mental health support for their loved one. Instead a family from Lansing says the 22-year-old is dead, and a hospital in Munster, Indiana, is to blame. Now they are calling for justice.
Jamal Williams — a Western Michigan University graduate, football player and a Lansing, Illinois, native — walked into the Munster Community Hospital in June. It is also where he died when he was shot and killed by a security guard.
His death was ruled a homicide due to a gunshot to the head.
“He did everything right. I think the ugliness of the world destroyed his mental a little a bit,” said Jamal’s father Eric Williams.
“It should have never have happened. It should have never happened,” said Jamal’s mother Patrice Patterson-Davis.
“They should have turned us away, but we wanted help for him,” she said.
Patterson-Davis says the hospital had loads of documents detailing her son’s frail mental condition, but Munster Community does not offer mental health services. They treated Jamal anyway.
Patrice Patterson-Davis-Mother
“They knew on various occasions that he was harmful to himself and others,” Patterson-Davis said.
Doctors had a document saying that Jamal “may harm himself or others” and another medical chart showing that he was recently observed screaming ‘please help me’ and claiming to have “seen the light” while making religious comments to God.
Despite all that, Patterson-Davis says her son was put on a kidney dialysis floor where the outside of his room said “fall risk” and nothing about his psychiatric status.
“IF they knew they weren’t equipped to hand him, why would they take him?” Patterson-Davis said.
The hospital stay turned deadly when a nurse called for security. The sheriff says Jamal turned violent. His family says he was asking people to pray.
One of the armed guards accidentally shot and killed his partner Ryan Askew before turning the gun on Jamal.
The security guard who killed two people faces no charges as of now.
“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Patterson-Davis said. “We want it so guns are not allowed in the hospital.”
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