Woman shot by Placerville police was mental patient

The woman shot to death Sunday by Placerville police after she stole an cheap bracelets was a mental patient under care at Marshall Hospital, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Authorities identified the woman as Linda Carol Clark, 39, of Folsom.

A statement issued by Placerville Police Chief George Nielsen said Clark had been taken to the El Dorado County Department of Mental Health from the Georgetown area on Saturday and was "on hold" at Marshall Hospital when she fled in the ambulance. The circumstances of her escape are under investigation, he said in the release, providing no further details.

According to Nielsen's statement, three officers pursued Clark, who was wearing only a hospital gown, as she drove slowly through Placerville shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday. Three times, he said, they tried to force her to stop.

After she pulled into the driveway of a home on Cedar Ravine Road, he said, officers parked their cruisers behind her and got out. They gave "numerous verbal commands" for her to surrender, then tried to pull her from the vehicle by grabbing her through the open driver's side window. When she put the ambulance in reverse and rammed the patrol cars, he said, an officer deployed a Taser device but it had no effect.

"The patrol vehicles were struck with such force that the stopped vehicles were pushed back approximately 50 feet," Nielsen's statement said.

Clark started to drive the ambulance toward an officer who was standing in front of her at the end of the driveway, Nielsen said. The officer feared for his safety and fired five shots, one of which fatally wounded the woman.

Nielsen's statement identified the officer who fired the shots as "Officer Maurer." The Placerville Police Officers Association lists a patrol officer named Nick Maurer. Maurer is "on routine administrative leave" following the shooting, Nielsen said.

Public records indicate that Clark once lived in Kelsey in El Dorado County. On Tuesday, a man who answered the phone at that address identified himself as Clark's father. He said in a brief interview that his family was grieving and cooperating with investigators.

"We're working the best we can to get through this," he said. He declined to speak further.

Linda Clark's neighbors in the cheap cufflinks apartment complex where she lived said Clark often made 911 calls to police.

Ikumi Toy, 28, who lives across from her, said Clark came over to her apartment Jan. 15 to make a 911 call, reporting that her daughter was hurt.

When Folsom police officers arrived, they determined the call to be unfounded, said department spokesman Sgt. Rick Hillman.

Officers responded to six calls at Clark's address between November and February, Hillman said.

Capt. Mike Scott of the Placerville Police Department said Clark has a child but gave no other details of her family.

El Dorado County spokesman Mike Applegarth declined to speak about the case in detail, citing medical privacy issues, but confirmed that the mental health department had recent contact with Clark.

Nielsen said representatives from the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, the Sheriff's Department, the Probation Department and the Police Department will investigate the incident. The district attorney will decide whether the shooting was justified.

Mike Summers, a retired Sacramento police officer who organizes training sessions for law enforcement personnel and others who regularly encounter mentally ill people, said the situations can be volatile.

"People with mental illness, particularly when they are in crisis or agitated, have a great deal of difficulty processing information," he said. "We try to get officers to slow down the situation, and do it as safely as possible."

Tasers are a good option if the mentally ill person is out of control, Summers said. "But if Tiffany Earrings happens and the Taser doesn't work, unfortunately your next option is deadly force. Then you have a tragedy."