There was a man who managed to climb to the roof of a house along 14th Street in late January.
The individual was homeless and seeking assistance from the staff of the House of Hagar, and he admitted he was high on crystal meth. And he wasn’t happy.
“I was in my office when I heard the call,” said Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger. “But I decided to respond along with a few other units. It’s just up the street from the police department.”
The Mother Jones House, once owned by the former Wheeling Jesuit University but now belonging to House of Hagar, is a two-story structure with an attic beneath a pitched roof. The man was threatening to jump from about 40 feet to his death.
“Cpl. Ben Young was the first officer to respond, and (private first-class) Cody Schwertfeger and Det. Billy Castilow responded as well,” Schwertfeger said. “It turned out to be a successful rescue instead of worst-case scenario, and there are reasons for that, I believe.”
“CIT”
“All,
I wanted to take a minute to thank you again for a very successful training the week before last. I further wished to share a brief story with you all:
Last Friday, JAN 22, during the late morning, I was working on budget at the temporary WPD location when I heard a call go out about a male subject on the roof of an address on 14th Street in East Wheeling. CPL Ben Young arrived shortly afterward and called for a supervisor and WFD. The subject was in distress and threatening to jump.”
That is the beginning of an email the Schwertfeger composed to a few folks who were involved with the development and administration of a new “crisis intervention training” implemented in Wheeling by the police chief.
“It was a powerful experience, and the officers did a tremendous job,” he explained. “All three of them had just graduated from that training, so an incident like that one illustrated why our officers do these kinds of trainings.
“It’s the real world out there these days. These kinds of incidents are what we are up against now, so it’s really important that these officers are ready to help,” he said. “Without the training, our response would have been similar, but when I arrived to that scene, I saw the man leaning over a rail that was up there on that roof, and he was threatening to jump. Thanks to that training, they knew exactly how to prevent serious injury and maybe even death.”
The incident closed 14th Street near Good Mansion Wines in East Wheeling for more than an hour while the officers worked with Wheeling firefighters to get into position for a possible rescue.
“The subject was a homeless person, and he was distraught,” Schwertfeger explained. “He had an addiction issue, as well, and he told one of the officers that he had just smoked crystal methamphetamine. He was also an individual who has mental health issues, and he told the officers that he wanted to kill himself.
“But during that training, they covered several different scenarios, and there is no doubt in my mind that those officers were better prepared for that situation because of that,” he said. “In the training they also talked a lot abut body language, and from I saw at that scene, the officers did exactly what they needed to do to calm down the man so they could get him off of that roof safely.”
Any Moment. Any Day.
“As I stood on the street, and as the incident was unfolding, I quickly realized that CPL Ben Young and both negotiators, had just graduated from our most recent CIT training. This is one of those defining moments of pride for a police chief that solidifies the need for training and the importance of training in CIT.
These officers will be recognized for their valiant efforts, especially since each one of them has a profound fear of heights. These moments also illustrate the daily activities of police officers and their bravery, compassion and willingness to serve their communities. This incident was not covered by the media, and most citizens will ever have a clue what these men did this day.
Thought I would share with you in sincere appreciation.”
Schwertfeger is a Marshall County native and was graduated from West Liberty State College in 1989 with a criminal justice degree. Instead of beginning his law enforcement career in the Upper Ohio Valley, he moved to Charlottesville, Va., and served for 21 years with the Albemarle County Police Department.
It is there where Schwertfeger was first exposed to the benefits of crisis intervention training.
“We had some veterans who were convinced they didn’t need it because of their experience,” the chief recalled. “But afterward, they realized the benefits, and they realized it was applicable to their work every day. That’s why I felt it was important to get it implemented here because, like I say all the time, in today’s world, our officers never know what a call for service is going to involve.”
And that included this particular call on 14th Street.
“In fact, those officers did end up in quarantine after that incident because that man had been infected with Covid-19, and he ended up in the hospital on a ventilator,” Schwertfeger reported. “But it’s just an example of what these officers may have to do at any moment when they are on duty. Wheeling firefighters were on the scene, too, but it was the officers who interacted with him so they could get him onto the ladder to take him off that roof.
“My email went to two individuals with Youth Services System because they were very instrumental with the development of that crisis intervention training,” the chief continued. “I just wanted them to know how effective that training proved to be, and it was almost immediate, and that success story has made that kind of training very popular among our officers.”
