Schindler, in an interview with the Dayton Daily News, said her calls to police were an attempt to get her child to the hospital for evaluation, not to report any crime. Police responding to the home Feb. 19 found Jayden Stephenson sitting on a barstool by himself holding a boxcutter.
Video of the incident shows police attempting to use restraint, opting several times for less-than-lethal measures, including a beanbag shotgun and a Taser. But attempts to disarm him proved unsuccessful and led to him being shot to death in an upstairs bedroom when he came at officers while still holding the boxcutter.
“Why wouldn’t they back off and let me talk to them and tell them what’s going on?” his mother said, tears welling up in her eyes.
Of eight officer-involved fatal shootings in the Dayton-area since January 2024, this incident is one of two that started out as a mental health call to police.
On Oct. 19, 26-year-old Taylor Cotton was shot and killed by Dayton police after pointing a shotgun at officers during a mental health call. After 25 minutes of de-escalation attempts, officers fired when Cotton raised the weapon, which was later discovered to be unloaded.
Cotton — like Stephenson — had a history of mental health issues and prior run-ins with police.
Schindler said her son had experienced mental health issues in the past. Police records show they responded to calls involving Stephenson four times in the weeks leading up to his death. Two of the incidents were listed as domestic and the others were a disorderly and a mental health call.
This story looks at the debate over how law enforcement should respond to mental health emergencies to prevent them from ending in tragedy.
‘Why are you upset?’
Schindler believes her son might still be alive if police had spent more time focused on negotiating and de-escalating and less time on trying to disarm him.
“Everybody just loved him,” said Schindler, wearing a heart locket with a photo of her son inside. “He just had this light about him that people just loved.”
Credit: DaytonDailyNews
Police bodycam video shows officers repeatedly telling Stephenson to “drop the knife,” but also asking questions.
“What’s going on in your life that you’re causing us problems? Who you mad at?” one officer asks.
“Jayden, why are you upset?”
“What’s going on? Why can’t you talk to me about it?”
Conversation ends when Stephenson stands up and begins to walk further into the house. Police fire a beanbag shotgun and Taser at him, and he heads upstairs with officers following close behind.
Video shows police follow Stephenson up a few stairs to a bedroom, where they assemble outside a closed door. Officers coordinate using less-than-lethal tools before kicking in the door.
Police find Stephenson lying on the floor of a connected bathroom, still appearing to hold the knife.
An officer shouts “show us your hands” and when Stephenson did not, he tells another officer “fire the Taser.” The officer does so and Stephenson stands, still holding the knife, and moves toward police. Multiple gunshots are heard, and Stephenson falls down after being fatally shot.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) continues to investigate the incident. Contacted by this news outlet, Miami Twp. Police Department declined comment for this story.
Law enforcement expert
Police officers, in general, are trained to resolve conflicts when called to an active situation without harm to anybody, including themselves or the victims, according to Steven Meacham, a Cedarville University associate professor of criminal justice.
“As police go into a situation like this, they have to be cognizant of the fact that if somebody is armed with a weapon, they obviously want to make sure that they are trying to resolve these situations without anybody being injured or killed,” said Meacham, who served as a member of New York State Police for 31 years. “No police officer ever wants to have to use lethal force. It doesn’t start there ... and it’s very traumatic for all sides when lethal force has to be used.”
What is difficult for law enforcement, Meacham said, is dealing with someone “not in their so-called right mind,” whether that be from mental issues or from being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
“If you were, as a police officer, called to a situation where somebody has been ... threatening (someone) or that they have a weapon, obviously you’re going to be cautious as a police officer entering into that situation, and you’re going to try to establish a dialogue,” he said.
“You’re going to establish a rapport, try to establish trust with the individual and and try to get the person to comply, to actually put down the weapon, and so forth.”
Sometimes that is successful through negotiation and asking good, open-ended questions to find out what is going on and what is needed, Meacham said. But sometimes that is not successful, and when someone is non-compliant and refusing to put down a weapon, police may have to use non-lethal measures such as pepper spray, a bean bag shotgun or a Taser,
“If the person is not compliant, (and) they continue to possess a weapon, and then they turn and lunge and go after somebody, another person, a police officer ... sometimes, unfortunately, then the lethal force is not only permitted, but in some cases, actually required in order to prevent somebody from being killed,” he said.
Mental health advocate
Someone working to get help for a loved one with mental health issues typically should start with calling the 988 Lifeline for help and not 911, according to Luke Russell, executive director for NAMI Ohio, the state chapter of the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.
Dialing 988 provides free, confidential support 24/7 to individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, including those with thoughts of suicide. About 80% of people who call 988 get the help they need without further steps, Russell said.
For someone calling law enforcement to deal with individuals in the midst of a mental health crisis, Russell recommends requesting an officer or deputy certified in Ohio’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, a 40-hour program that takes officers through training on how to interact with said individuals.
Russell said the mental health system as a whole needs to find a way that allows for longer-term stabilization beyond being hospitalized just a few days, as many individuals repeatedly cycle in and out of crisis.
“We have to have a system in place that allows for seven-plus days for an individual in crisis to become stable, that allows for them to truly be back on their medications, back to where they need to be, so that they can function without these repeated calls,” he said.
Prior incidents
Repeated calls for service is something NAMI sees a lot of in the cases of those who end up having negative interactions with law enforcement, Russell said.
“Everybody wants to point the finger at that day, or they want to look at what happened that moment,” he said. “The issue is, we have to ... look a little broader and (say to ourselves) ‘Hold on. This is happening all the time. Well then, why?‘”
Repeated minor offenses — or even less — paired with recurring police calls signal the need to prioritize helping the individual reach a stable and safer place, especially if they might harm themselves or others, Russell said.
Stephenson had four run-ins with law enforcement in the weeks before the shooting.
Jan. 28: Police responded to a domestic call where Stephenson’s mother reported him breaking and throwing things. He left the house after gathering his belongings.
Feb. 17: Stephenson was trespassed from a gym for throwing weights and attempting to fight someone.
Feb. 18 (early morning): Police responded to a mental health call at Stephenson’s home. His mother and grandmother expressed concerns about his behavior and suspected drug use. Later, he admitted to pushing his mother and grandmother and was arrested for domestic violence.
Feb. 18 (evening): Stephenson’s mother reported he was acting delusional and paranoid. Police determined there was not enough to hospitalize him.
Family attorney
Alan Statman, Schindler’s attorney, said the events leading to Stephenson’s death were “an overreaction from start to finish” by police with no attempt to build rapport and no use of de-escalation techniques. Instead, officers shouted commands.
He said officers’ actions, including following Stephenson upstairs, were “a series of uneducated calls” that amounted to, in his opinion “prohibited excessive deadly force,”
“What is the crime that was being committed that required any type of force other than to sit it out?” Statman said. “And guess what? If he’d have harmed himself, it wouldn’t have ended any worse than it did, right?”
Statman said if Stephenson had been holding a gun instead of a knife, the situation never would have escalated the way it did, especially with no one else in the house.
“They would have called a SWAT team,” he said. “They would have called a crisis negotiator from Montgomery County or somewhere, and ... they would have stayed outside and then had a conversation with someone that understands how to negotiate with someone having a mental health crisis or under significant stress.”
Meachem said that sentiment is “misguided.”
Meacham said “the-police-should-have-done-this” sentiment seems to be a common theme these days, but people must factor in the difficulty of law enforcement being in the middle of enormously difficult, extremely stressful situations.
‘Didn’t know a stranger’
Besides consequences for officers involved in her son’s death, Schindler said she also wants to the see Miami Twp. Police Department implement reforms to improve officers’ response to mental health crises along with a greater emphasis on crisis management and de-escalation techniques.
Schindler said she and her husband moved out of their Sawgrass Drive home in the aftermath of her son’s death, selling it earlier this month. Stephenson’s family said they plan to continue to hold protests in front of the Miami Twp. Police Department.
Schindler, in the sit-down interview with this news outlet, said her son enjoyed working out, spending time with friends and family and anything having to do with his Ford Mustang. He “really didn’t know a stranger” and was very helpful, she said.
“He would see these guys .... pushing their car and he wanted to stop and help them,” she said. “He (was) just a very kind, giving kid ... always going out of his way to do for others.”
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