Chesterfield County police on Saturday night shot and killed a mentally ill man outside his house after he knocked an officer down in a driveway, according to the man's family and police.
Robert "Bo" Hansen Jr., 31, died outside the house in the 11100 block of Lucks Lane, off Courthouse Road north of the Powhite Parkway, after one of two female officers shot him in the chest, said his mother, Debi Hansen.
The 6-foot-2, 350-pound Hansen had knocked down one officer and was hitting her, and Hansen's parents tried to pull him off her, Debi Hansen said. Her son turned toward the second officer, and the first one said, "Shoot him, shoot him," recalled Debi Hansen.
"I said, 'Please don't shoot him,'" Debi Hansen said.
After he was shot, Hansen took one step and said "Mom" before he fell, Debi Hansen said.
Angry and hurt, family members said the two female officers were not equipped to handle a large man in a mental crisis and said police should have had a better plan in place.
"They could have backed off and called for backup," said Dale Hansen, Robert Hansen Sr.'s brother.
Chesterfield police confirmed that an officer fired one shot, killing Hansen, during what they described as an aggravated domestic call, but they declined to comment further.
Hansen was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1996, his mother said. He had been a normal teenager but started showing signs of illness at age 19.
A psychiatrist gave him new medicine recently, his mother said. He had been depressed, edgy and feeling lonely.
The shooting took place after a surprise birthday party for Robert Hansen's brother in-law. After the party, Robert Hansen and his father, Robert Hansen Sr., went shopping for gifts for his and Debi Hansen's 35th wedding anniversary that day.
When they got home, the father and son were working on a boat outside the house in preparation for a fishing trip yesterday.
"He was all excited, talking about catching some big fish," said one of his two sisters, Martha Hansen, 23. "He was so happy."
That evening, Hansen inexplicably attacked his father and started beating him in a bedroom, Debi Hansen said.
She said she called 911 at 9:23 p.m. and added that her son is a large man with mental problems. She told a dispatcher she needed to call a crisis-intervention professional, but she said the dispatcher told her to stay on the phone.
When the two officers arrived, Hansen was standing on the back deck, speaking incoherently, his mother said. He approached the officers and was pepper-sprayed, but he kept coming, Debi Hansen said.
Police said the two officers were placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation, but authorities did not name the officers.
After the shooting Saturday night, Debi Hansen opened the card her son had gotten for his parents' anniversary. "Mom and Dad -- Hope your anniversary is as happy as can be!" the card says. "And thanks, 'cause if it weren't for you . . . there wouldn't be a ME. Enjoy your day!"
It was signed, "Love, your son, Bo."
Debi Hansen asked that the community pray for her family, and Martha Hansen said she is sorry for the officer who shot her brother.
"I feel bad . . . because she's got to deal with it," Martha Hansen said. "I feel bad, I do. And I pray for her."
In the past six years, two Chesterfield officers have been killed in the line of duty, with one responding to a domestic call and the other killed by a mentally unbalanced man.
Officer Gary J. Buro was shot and killed on May 4, 2006, by a man who had been arguing with a girlfriend. And officer Ryan E. Cappelletty was fatally shot May 28, 2003, by a man who had threatened to kill several neighbors and talked of a coming apocalypse.
In both cases, another officer shot and killed the gunman.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.
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