Psychiatric patient fatally shot outside facility as he approached guard with butter knife
Falls hospital to pay family in death
Published: February 10, 2010, 8:48 am
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LOCKPORT — Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center agreed Tuesday to pay an undisclosed settlement to the family of a psychiatric patient who was shot to death outside the hospital in 1997.
The deal with the family of Jonah R. Drisdom was made during a lunch break on the first day of a jury trial before State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. Kloch ordered the settlement sealed and directed all parties not to discuss it.
The settlement is the second the Drisdom family has received in recent weeks. On Jan. 25, the Niagara Falls City Council ratified a payment of $225,000 for the actions of Officer Walter R. Nichols Jr.
Nichols was working as a security guard at the medical center on April 17, 1997, following an overnight police shift. He was wearing his police uniform and shot Drisdom with his police pistol.
He was alerted by emergency room Dr. Leonard S. Franco, who was dropped as a defendant in the case last week, that Drisdom was psychotic and was leaving without permission, and that he had a knife.
Joseph McCarthy, attorney for the hospital, told the jury in his opening statement that it was a butter knife from Drisdom’s breakfast tray.
Drisdom, 47, had been brought in overnight from Lockport by ambulance after his daughter, Jonna Drisdom, now 34, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, called Crisis Services. He had been living with Jonna and her children on Green Street. Counselor Barry Jones said Drisdom needed to be examined.
Corey J. Hogan, who with Jon Louis Wilson was co-counsel for the family, told the jury that Jonna knew something was wrong with her father that night.
“He was looking out the door, looking out the window, making sure doors were locked, looking in closets,” Hogan said. Also, Jonna had found him in the bathroom, drinking shampoo, children’s Tylenol, and other substances. Drisdom had been suffering from schizophrenia since about the age 30.
Hogan said Drisdom heard voices in his head.
“He was told to kill himself and if he didn’t, he was a coward,” Hogan said.
The lawsuit accused the medical center of negligence because Drisdom wasn’t locked in a room, wasn’t kept under constant surveillance, and was given a meal with metal utensils.
McCarthy said those decisions were made by nurse Enid Belford, who had 20 years of experience in dealing with psychiatric patients in the emergency room. He said Drisdom had offered no resistance to being taken to the hospital and was calm while there.
“What the plaintiff wants at that point is we should restrain Mr. Drisdom and put him in a locked room even though he’s shown no aggression,” McCarthy said. He said doing that might have provoked Drisdom, who according to McCarthy was 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed 277 pounds.
He was wearing a hospital gown over his pants that morning. He decided to put his coat on and leave, but he tucked the knife and fork from breakfast in his coat pocket. He then walked out of the emergency room.
Hogan said Nichols yelled at Drisdom to come back. Turning around, he added, “He sees a man in a police uniform and starts swinging his knife. . . . Officer Nichols, for whatever reason, feels it’s necessary to shoot Mr. Drisdom. He puts three bullets into his chest area.”
“Officer Nichols made the decision as a police officer, fully trained, that Mr. Drisdom was going to attack him,” McCarthy said. “He made the decision to use his weapon.”
Nichols himself was shot Feb. 7, 2009, allegedly by Adam J. Hamilton of Niagara Falls in a South Avenue incident. Nichols testified in Hamilton’s trial Monday and was asked about the Drisdom case.
When co-defense counsel Daniel Henry brought up the butter knife, Nichols answered, “It still was a dangerous weapon, sir.”
Nichols testified, “As [Drisdom] started approaching me, I was stepping backward, backpedaling, and I was ordering him repeatedly, ‘Drop the knife.’ . . . There were witness statements that said I did it a dozen times.”
A grand jury cleared Nichols of criminal wrongdoing in 1997.
tprohaska@buffnews.com
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