Teen arrested day after incident

Calling it a learning experience, a Spokane Police Department official acknowledged Tuesday that a 14-year-old boy suspected of taking a gun to kill his former teacher at Ferris High School was never formally placed under arrest before being dropped off at a hospital for a mental evaluation.

Because of that, officials at Sacred Heart Medical Center said they were bound by state law to release the boy unless he was deemed an imminent threat to himself or others. The boy, Jacob D. Carr, was arrested at home a day later, after police realized he was no longer at the hospital, and now is charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Carr’s release from the hospital Thursday night, just hours after being taken into custody by police, alarmed officers and educators alike.

But hospital officials insist they did nothing wrong.

“The key is what his criminal status was when he was brought here,” said Susan Hammond, the psychiatric services director for Sacred Heart. “Attempted suicide is not a crime.”

According to court documents, Carr left a suicide note at his home and stole his father’s .32-caliber pistol. He then went to Ferris High School, from which he previously had been expelled for threatening his English teacher, who he claimed had been disrespectful toward him in class earlier in the year.

Carr’s brother told a police officer Thursday that he had seen Jacob at the school about 3:15 p.m. that same day. At 4:46 p.m. Thursday, another police officer spotted Jacob Carr walking toward Ferris at 37th Avenue and Myrtle Street.

The boy told the officer that he had earlier been expelled from Ferris for threatening a teacher and that he was headed to Ferris to kill himself, according to court records.

The officer transported Carr to Sacred Heart as an “involuntary transport, turning him over to staff as a suicidal person,” court records state. “He briefed the staff prior to leaving.”

In this case, Carr was evaluated and then released back to his parents about 8 p.m. Thursday, while police officials assumed he was still at Sacred Heart, Deputy Chief Al Odenthal said. Police officials learned Friday morning that Carr wasn’t at the hospital and sent out officers to take him back into custody.

“We were somewhat surprised, based on the circumstances that we knew, that (Carr) wasn’t held for evaluation and/or treatment,” Odenthal said. “But I’m not sure that everything was communicated by the parents, the school or by the officer prior to the evaluation.”

During the Friday interview, police say, Carr admitted that he had been about 6 feet away from English teacher Michelle Klein-Coles. Carr told investigators that he planned to kill Klein-Coles but hesitated because he was afraid that other adults in the room would keep him from killing himself.

Carr said he later waited for more than an hour outside another room, but Klein-Coles left the building when Carr went around the corner to get a drink of water, according to court records.

Police Lt. Dean Sprague said department policy is clear on how officers handle mental patients.

“If a person is obviously out of touch with reality, that they could hurt somebody or themselves, it’s called an involuntary commitment,” Sprague said. “If they need to deal with their issues, we leave them and let Sacred Heart security know.

“But if it is somebody who we have placed under arrest, they belong to us,” he said. “We are basically taking responsibility for their care and safety.”

Hammond said the hospital works well with the Police Department and takes about a dozen referrals each day from officers.

“If they are under arrest, the police remain in the emergency room and the patients may even be handcuffed. Then we turn them back over to the police,” she said. “If they are not under arrest, we make a determination of mental health and then we proceed.”

Hammond said the privacy guidelines of the Health Insurance Portability and Protection Act prevent her from discussing anything about Carr’s case. But she was able to talk about procedures. Asked if procedures were followed in this case, she said: “Absolutely.”

“In our evaluation, we are mandated by the state to provide the least-restrictive alternatives,” she said.

The most restricted level of care is to lock the patient up, she said. “But you have to be able to demonstrate to a court that detaining this person and putting them in a locked psychiatric ward is the only alternative to the safety of the patient or the safety of others,” Hammond said.

Otherwise, patients are released and their evaluations remain secret under the HIPPA law, she said.

“The only exception in the HIPPA law is if during the process of interviewing the patient, we discover the patient is at imminent risk to himself or someone else,” Hammond said. “Then we are required to talk to police.”

Odenthal said that the case remains under investigation and that it was premature to say if anyone involved in the case did anything wrong.

“I think we’ve all learned to do some things a little bit better, including the department and the school and the parents,” Odenthal said.