EDITORIAL: Aura Rosser’s Life and Death

AURA ROSSER WAS mentally ill, perhaps with Bipolar disorder, according to statements made by her relatives and evidence presented in a 12-page memo released by the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie. The night she was tasered by one and shot by a second Ann Arbor Police officer—virtually simultaneously—evidence suggests she was off her psychotropic medications, high on cocaine and had consumed a large amount of alcohol. None of these facts suggest she deserved to die.

All of these facts suggest Aura Rosser needed medical, mental health and human services. Her behavior should not have surprised AAPD officers who responded to the call that Nov. 2014 night.

After all, just weeks earlier Rosser had allegedly threatened her live-in boyfriend with a knife, according to police records. That Sept. 2014 evening, five patrol cars with seven Ann Arbor police officers responded. There were multiple outstanding warrants for Rosser’s arrest issued in Wayne County. Yet, an AAPD officer who had been instructed by the County Prosecutor’s office to interview the alleged victim of the domestic dispute (Rosser’s boyfriend) interviewed Rosser instead, by phone. She could have been picked up by Ann Arbor Police, transported to Wayne County and may have been adjudicated in that county’s drug court.

According to police records, the AAPD requested a warrant for her arrest in Sept. and Prosecutor Brian Mackie’s office refused to issue one. There were conflicting stories from Rosser and her boyfriend about what had happened that Sept. evening.

The mentally ill can and do break the law. On the night she was tasered, and shot in the chest, Aura Rosser was naked from the waist up and brandishing a knife at two police officers both of whom were wearing bullet proof vests. The officers stated in subsequent reports that they feared for their lives. We must take them at their words, but this death should serve as a wake-up call.

Our city’s downtown library has been used for years as a de facto daytime homeless shelter by local elected officials. For over a decade, mayor and council have been negligent in recognizing the need for a day shelter for a growing homeless population, including families and children. The AAPD is utilized as the first responder to dangerous situations involving the chronically mentally ill. Police should be a last and not a first resort in helping the mentally ill.

Local police attended a 2014 workshop sponsored by EMU’s Autism Center in order to better understand those on the autism spectrum whom first responders come into contact with. Such programs should be expanded to include other mental disorders and made mandatory for all first responders in Washtenaw County.

Law enforcement is ill-equipped to deal with those suffering from mental disorders, including juveniles and adults. Yet, elected officials continue to use our county jail as a de facto in-patient mental health facility, at great expense to taxpayers.

Our county’s law enforcement, human services and elected officials need to study why Aura Rosser died and to implement changes in policy, programs, training, funding and procedure. We must fill the procedural, legal and human services cracks through which Aura Rain Rosser fell, to a tragic and untimely death.