Boston’s ‘Send a Social Worker’ Policy Meets Reality in Seconds
By Ben SmithA Boston mental health crisis call turned violent Saturday when a sword-wielding man attacked a clinician and stabbed a police officer during a co-response call, part of Boston’s shift toward sending mental health workers into situations traditionally handled by police, where responders spent nearly 40 minutes trying to defuse the situation before the door opened.
Boston uses a co-response model that pairs police with mental health clinicians on certain 911 calls and routes some cases away from a police-only response. That model was in place when officers responded to Hemenway Street around 10:45 a.m. after a man called 911 claiming four armed people were trying to harm him outside his apartment and needed immediate help.
Officers did not find anyone outside and instead spoke with the caller through the closed door, trying to assess what was happening inside the apartment and determine whether there was any immediate threat to others in the building. When the standoff escalated, they brought in EMS personnel and a clinician as part of the city’s response structure.
For roughly 35 to 45 minutes, EMS and the clinician spoke with the man through the door and determined he was in immediate need of attention due to a mental health crisis, according to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who said responders were attempting to keep him engaged and focused on getting help.
Then the door opened.
“As they asked the individual to begin the process of maybe coming up and getting the attention they needed, the individual immediately opened the door and struck both the clinician and an officer who was outside the door,” Cox said. “He was armed with some type of sword, striking… the officer in the arm, knocking at least the EMS clinician to the ground.”
Police said the man stabbed an officer in the arm and knocked the clinician to the ground before other officers used a Taser and a firearm to stop him as the confrontation unfolded just outside the apartment doorway. EMS treated the suspect at the scene before transporting him to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
The officer received a tourniquet at the scene before being transported to the hospital. Several officers and two EMS clinicians were also treated for non-life-threatening injuries following the encounter inside the apartment, according to Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden, who confirmed multiple responders were hurt during the incident.
Boston EMS addressed the attack directly.
“Members of Boston EMS show up to save lives — not to be assaulted. No one should face violence for simply doing their job.”
Boston officials have promoted the co-response model as a way to route people in crisis toward treatment instead of arrest or emergency room intake, particularly in situations initially assessed as nonviolent or behavioral health-related calls, describing it as a partnership between police and mental health workers on calls involving public safety risk and designed to connect individuals with care instead of the criminal justice system.
The approach grew out of policy changes pushed in 2020, when Boston leaders, including then-City Councilor Michelle Wu, backed efforts to divert certain calls away from police and reduce the department’s budget following the George Floyd protests.
Boston built this model to send clinicians into calls like this instead of relying on police. After roughly 40 minutes of trying to defuse the situation, the clinician sent in to handle the call took the first hit when the door opened.
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