Amy Brogdon Anderson’s mom tried to get Ocean Springs police to take motion in opposition to her daughter the day earlier than the Coast veterinarian shot and killed two Bay St. Louis law enforcement officials, in accordance with police name sheets and different info obtained by the Solar Herald.
Anderson, 43, shot and killed Bay St. Louis Police Sgt. Steven Robin, 34, and Officer Brandon Estorffe, 23, within the early morning hours of Dec. 14. exterior of Motel 6 on Freeway 90.
Anderson was sitting within the driver’s seat of her SUV along with her 8-year-old daughter inside when she fatally shot Robin and turned the gun on Estorffe. Estorffe shot and killed Anderson in an alternate of gunfire earlier than he fell to the bottom and later died.
Anderson had requested the Bay St. Louis motel employees to name 911 as a result of she thought somebody was following her. Authorities consider she was having a psychotic break and began capturing as a result of she feared shedding custody of her little lady.
Her household expressed considerations about her psychological stability and reached out for assist earlier than the killings.
The Solar Herald filed public data requests and carried out interviews with police and family and friends of these concerned, together with psychological well being specialists, to get extra perception into the occasions that unraveled earlier than Anderson killed the law enforcement officials in entrance of her youngest youngster.
Ocean Springs law enforcement officials began coping with points involving Anderson on Dec. 13, a short while after the daddy of Anderson’s two oldest youngsters checked them out of college and took them house to Vicksburg due to considerations over Anderson’s psychological well being, in accordance with authorities.
The 8-year-old lady stayed with Anderson as a result of she didn’t have the identical father as her siblings.
Police went to Anderson’s house thrice and had an encounter along with her on the Police Division in a fourth incident, however Ocean Springs Police Chief Mark Dunston stated there was by no means an encounter or welfare examine that warranted any arrest or additional motion by police.
Anderson, in accordance with associates, was beginning to unravel mentally and was “delusional” lengthy earlier than the police shootings, prompting her household and others to attempt to get motion taken.
In a public Fb put up taking jabs at Anderson after the killings, a pal spoke up, telling people who they as an alternative ought to be asking Ocean Springs police why they did not take motion after they “have been referred to as out by her family and friends begging for assist as a result of she was delusional and paranoid and had a gun.”
“The police got here out,” the pal stated. “There was an ambulance referred to as. They assessed the state of affairs and left her there with a gun and her youngster.”
Anderson, who grew up in Vicksburg and adopted in her father’s footsteps to change into a veterinarian like him, had labored at a number of Coast vet clinics earlier than she ended up at Lakeview Animal Hospital in D’Iberville a few month earlier than her dying. She had additionally been working at MedVet Cell.
In keeping with associates of the household, Anderson had points for some time.
911 calls to Ocean Springs police
The primary incident involving Anderson in Ocean Springs occurred at 3:28 p.m. on Dec. 13 when Anderson’s mom referred to as 911 to report that her daughter “is uncontrolled” and believed to be “beneath the affect of narcotics.”
Anderson’s mom informed police her daughter was at her house on Cumberland Highway with a loaded pistol and her 8-year-old daughter inside, the decision sheet says.
The mom was on the house when law enforcement officials arrived and informed police she was attempting to get custody of the kid.
Chief Dunston stated a number of law enforcement officials went to the house however left with out taking any motion. An ambulance was additionally dispatched to the scene.
“This Amy individual was performing regular, and he or she was saying that her mom was loopy, however her mom was saying, ‘No, she is loopy.’” Dunston stated.
The law enforcement officials spoke to the little lady as properly.
“The little lady stated every little thing was effective, in order that they left,” Dunston stated. “It wasn’t like she (Anderson’s mom) was attempting to get an emergency restraining order. When the officers spoke to them, it gave the impression of a mamma-daughter argument, in order that they left.”
By 7:45 p.m. on Dec. 13, Anderson was on the Ocean Springs Police Division to report that she was being harassed by one other ex-husband whom she claimed was about to get out of jail after serving time for intercourse crimes in opposition to a baby, in accordance with Dunston.
“There wasn’t any menace,” Dunston stated. “He wasn’t harassing her. She acquired all pissed off and left.”
Anderson had been married and divorced a number of occasions.
Her second husband is serving a 10-year jail sentence in Mississippi for sexual battery of a kid, however he’s not scheduled for launch till December 2027, data from the Mississippi Division of Corrections and Madison County courts present.
One other relative referred to as Ocean Springs police round 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 14 for a welfare examine on Anderson.
In that incident, the caller stated one among Anderson’s youngsters had confided in her father that Anderson had been “wandering round the home satisfied that the mafia has modified her locks,” the decision sheet says
Ocean Springs law enforcement officials arrived on the house three minutes later, however nobody was there. No additional motion was taken.
Ocean Springs law enforcement officials didn’t write any studies about any incidents regardless of the repeated calls and direct contact with Anderson at her house and on the Police Division.
‘It’s not against the law’
For the reason that killings, many who knew and beloved the veterinarian have expressed concern over Ocean Springs law enforcement officials not taking additional motion.
Dunston defended his law enforcement officials.
“We will’t simply arrest any person as a result of they’ve a gun in the home,” he stated. “It’s not against the law to have a gun.”
The Solar Herald requested Dunston why extra details about the encounters and calls about Anderson weren’t detailed in any incident studies.
“Have you learnt how many individuals we come into contact with who’ve these identical complaints?” Dunston stated. “I do know there are individuals on social media who stated she had a gun in her home and we should always have arrested her. No, we will’t simply go into your own home and take your gun as a result of your mother says you could have a gun.”
Not psychological well being professionals
Julie Teater, a longtime scientific and forensic psychologist in South Mississippi, expressed some considerations concerning the lack of motion in Ocean Springs due to the kid with Anderson on the time, her alleged drug use and her having a loaded pistol inside her house.
“If there was a priority about medication and alcohol and a gun and a baby was concerned, I might need to know if law enforcement officials directed the mother about how one can go about making a civil dedication,” Teater stated.
Teater stated the law enforcement officials may have decided to take Anderson to a hospital emergency room for an analysis since “they don’t seem to be psychological well being professionals.”
Along with having her personal follow, Teater handles court-appointed forensic evaluations for involuntary commitments for psychological well being points in Hancock, Harrison and Stone counties.
Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Heart on the College of Mississippi Faculty of Regulation, stated the true problem in cases like this has extra to do with Mississippi’s damaged psychological well being system.
“The query is, ‘What do we would like from police?’” Johnson stated. “Do we would like a system the place wellness checks are carried out by police as an alternative of social staff and psychological well being professionals? I believe there’s a actual function for social staff right here. There are locations on this nation which have disaster intervention groups and people groups will not be made up of solely regulation enforcement officers. They embrace counselors and social staff, and in some cases, psychologists.”
Most people who find themselves coping with relations with profound psychological well being points, he stated, don’t know the method for pursuing civil commitments by means of the Chancery Courtroom system, and because of this, many name police to examine on their family members in a lot of these emergencies.
“I don’t know all of the specifics of this case, however on the whole, I don’t assume that is about officers shirking tasks which have been clearly outlined,” Johnson stated. “My sense is that coping with psychological well being points in native communities presents a considerable burden to regulation enforcement and takes officers away from different tasks.”
Most residents, he stated, don’t know they will attain out to their native psychological well being facilities reasonably than law enforcement officials when their family members are having a psychological well being problem.
“I don’t blame individuals who name the police first as a result of they’ve by no means had such assets in Mississippi,” he stated. “That is the problem we’re coping with everywhere in the state. We’ve individuals coping with profound psychological well being points, and so they have nowhere to go.
“I’m the primary to criticize police in the event that they do one thing flawed. On the identical time, now we have to reexamine what we would like and count on from regulation enforcement. I believe we should always ask them to do much less, no more.”
The issue, Johnson stated, is that Mississippi leaders have failed “to create a sturdy community-based psychological well being system in Mississippi.”
“Leaders spent that point specializing in mass incarceration and different punitive measures reasonably than efforts to cope with the foundation causes of undesirable conduct,” he stated. “We haven’t applied insurance policies that deal with psychological well being dependancy and poverty, We’ve been too busy changing into the state that incarcerates more people per capita than anyplace else on this planet.”
This story was initially printed January 17, 2023 8:15 AM.
Margaret Baker is an investigative reporter whose seek for fact uncovered corrupt sheriffs, a police chief and varied jailers and led to the primary prosecution of a federal hate crime for the homicide of a transgendered individual. She labored on the Solar Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Hurricane Katrina group. When she pursues a giant story, she is relentless.
