KSU Police procedures from KentWired.com on Vimeo.

On Sept. 16, 2017, Georgia Tech student Scout Schultz was shot and killed by police after coming at police officers with a knife and screaming “shoot me.” Schultz was said to have had a mental breakdown Saturday night and called the police moments before, saying there was a person with a gun and knife, referring to himself.

Riots broke out days after on the campus resulting in a police cruiser on fire. Georgia Tech police officer Tyler Beck, who shot Schultz, was said to not have received crisis intervention training and had only joined the force in the spring of 2016.

TV2 talked to Kent State Community Resource Officer Tricia Knoles to find out how she and Kent State officers are trained in these situations.

“Here at Kent State police, all of our officers do go through CIT training, which is crisis intervention training, which deals with mental illness and how to respond to a person,” Knoles said.

She said Kent State police officers do have non-lethal weapons on them, including pepper spray and pepper balls. Knoles said that Kent State officers typically keep the pepper balls in their cruisers and go through certification to be used as an impact and dispersing weapon.

When deciding whether to use the non-lethal weapons, Knoles said it depends on the situation. They decide whether or not they should take the pepper ball out depending on the call.

Knoles said that she, along with the other Kent State officers, is trained once a month in crisis intervention and in other areas to keep up and to have the information always fresh in their minds.

The Kent State University police center is located in the Stockdale Safety Building along East Summit Street. For more information, you can call their non-emergency number at 330-672-2212.

Maria DeBone is a TV2 reporter. Contact her at [email protected].