CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) – District Attorney General Dave Clark is claiming that Clinton Police Department Officer Matt Howell committed no crime when he shot and killed Isaiah Gregory Hill in March.
Also, Clark is claiming that the situation could have been avoided had Hill had access to mental health resources Clark says are lacking in East Tennessee.
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The shooting happened on March 3 around 8 p.m. on Medaris Street. According to Clark, Hill’s grandmother, Patricia McMahon, called 911 because Hill was acting suicidal.
Howell was the officer to respond to the call, which escalated just seconds after he arrived. According to Clark, Hill immediately charged Howell with a knife, prompting Howell to shoot him twice, killing him.
Clark claims in his report that Howell was justified in the shooting, explaining that the officer told Hill to stop and drop the knife and allowed him to get closer than reasonably necessary before deciding to fire.
The district attorney general also says in the report that Howell gave Hill medical aid and had an ambulance called for the man, who later died.
More evidence points to Howell being justified in the shooting, Clark says, including witness statements that say he was being charged and gave warnings to Hill to stop.
However, Hill’s grandmother gave the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the agency charged with looking into officer-involved shootings, a list of statements claiming Howell should not have fired.
Among other things, McMahon said Howell should have used a non-lethal method to control Hill, also claiming Howell shot him in the back and did not give him any medical assistance.
McMahon also claimed that had Hill not been mixed-race, he would have been subdued rather than killed.
The grandmother’s claims are not uncommon among victims of officer shootings. Several calls to action across the country have highlighted the disproportionate number of killings when suspects are Black, also questioning why crisis workers do not respond to mental health calls rather than police officers.
In his report, Clark refutes several of McMahon’s claims. He says that evidence shows Howell never shot Hill in the back and did give him a warning before firing. Clark also says EMS responders at the scene said Howell had bandaged Hill’s gunshot wounds before they arrived.
However, Clark also echoes the report’s claim that there are not enough accessible mental health resources in the region.
“I would observe that time and time again there aren’t sufficient resources to deal with mental illness, and those that seek help often don’t get help or enough help,” Clark said. “Through informal conversations, it seems that our community is aware that mental health services are inadequate, but somehow, as a society, we seem resigned to accept that situation, or we see no answers. I continue to hope that we can do better.”
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