Was Easton police shooting during mental health check justified? We asked some experts.

EASTON ― The woman who was killed by an Easton police officer during a mental health crisis on Feb. 5 had lost her 22-year-old son in a car crash on New Year's Eve.

Just over a month prior to her death, Marianne Griffiths, a lifelong Easton resident, had lost her middle son, 22-year-old William Molloy, in a deadly car crash in Rhode Island.

In his obituary, family described her son as someone with a "vibrant personality which made him the life of the party, fiercely loyal, and a hard worker who wanted more than anything to make his family proud."

According to her obituary, Griffiths worked as a professional manicurist for several years and enjoyed gardening, spending winters in Florida and painting figurines as well as arts and crafts.

On her Facebook account, Griffiths' header photo was a picture of her and her three sons smiling.

Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the district attorney’s office and prosecutors are investigating the fatal police shooting that left the Easton mother of three dead.

The Enterprise was unable to reach Griffiths' family members for comment.

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How a wellness check turned deadly

On Sunday, Feb. 5, Griffiths, 56, was shot in the chest by an Easton police officer after Griffiths threatened to shoot herself and officers and later pointed a rifle-style BB gun at police, the Bristol County district attorney's office said in a written statement on Feb. 6.

That morning, one of her other sons, an Ashland resident, had called police to do a wellness check on Griffiths. He told police she had told him she had injected herself with a dangerous amount of insulin in an attempt to commit suicide, the DA's office said.

Easton police responded to the home at 32 Spooner St. and encountered Griffiths and other family members.

"After a brief discussion with her, she ran downstairs and threatened that she would shoot the police and herself," the statement says. "The officers inside immediately evacuated the other people in the home and exited the residence. At that point Griffiths ran back upstairs, approached the front entry way to the home and pointed what appeared to be a rifle at the officers, who were now standing outside the home. An Easton Police Officer then fired one shot, before retreating to cover."

Griffiths was struck once in the chest and died, the DA's office said.

"Once police re-entered the home, they secured the rifle Griffiths was holding, which turned out to be a pump action BB gun," the district attorney said.

According to Easton Police Chief Keith Boone, the officer who fired the lethal shot, who has not yet been named publicly, has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated, per department policy.

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No body-worn cameras or cruiser cameras

According to the Easton Police Department, Easton police officers are not equipped with wear body-worn cameras, and none of the officers on scene were wearing body-worn cameras. The Easton Police Department also said none of Easton Police vehicles or other vehicles at the scene were equipped with cameras.

As to whether there was any known video footage of the incident from any other sources, the Easton Police Department referred The Enterprise to the Bristol County district attorney's office, as they are the ones conducting the investigation. The DA's office did not respond to a written request for comment.

Experts weigh in on use of deadly force in this case

The Enterprise reached out to a use-of-force expert and a professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State University about the incident.

"It may seem easy to 'Monday Morning Quarterback' this incident but we must understand that we were not present in the exact moment of this crisis, nor were we present to the perceived lethal dangers presented by the woman toward the police and all others present," said David O'Laughlin, a retired Brookline police officer, director of training at the Massachusetts-based Municipal Police Institute and expert in use of force.

"We must be mindful that the actions were set in motion by the woman herself and the results are as devastating to the police, and in particular, the officer who fired, as they are to her family and friends," he said.

Mitch Librett, a retired New Rochelle, New York, police lieutenant and current professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State University, said, "of what I know of the shooting, it was justified."

Griffiths threatened herself and police with a pump-action BB gun, which Librett said, "have a powerful charge, strong enough to penetrate the skin and severely injure someone, or worse, kill them."

"The department, I'm sure, will do a detailed, careful, step-by-step investigation, but police officers are trained to use deadly force when they can articulate a subjective belief that their life or another person's life is at imminent risk," he continued.

O'Laughlin added that many police departments across the Commonwealth have contracts with mental health agencies and clinicians for similar cases, as "current law enforcement training is focused on better management of such issues with an already existing goal of resolution without harm."

During Librett's police career, he said his department hired a social worker to look over cases police officers believed needed more attention.

"However, mental health crises are a fairly recent public concern," he continued. "So most police departments don't have the resources to have a mental health consultant on-call for cases like this."

How does the Easton Police Department deal with mental health crises?

The Easton Police Department, however, has invested in two variations of this role.

According to Boone, the Easton Police Department has a community outreach officer as well as a recently hired mental health clinician.

"The outreach officer is primarily used for follow-ups to mental health crises the police have been called to," he said.

The mental health clinician, whom the Easton Police Department had been on the lookout for for the past two years, was brought on in mid-February, Boone said.

"Her primary function is to serve those dealing with mental health issues, substance use disorders or the combination of the two," he said. "As the program develops, the clinician will likely spend time riding with an officer on shift."

"The nature of the call will determine whether the clinician will assist with a call for service in real time or conduct a follow-up," he said.

The ongoing investigation is being handled by the Easton Police Department and the Bristol County district attorney's office.

Staff writer Namu Sampath can be reached at nsampath@enterprisenews.com. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Easton police shooting: Marianne Griffiths killed on Spooner Street